To summarize, Friedland’s position is that we must abandon the optimism, inherent in globalization, that post-communist countries would gradually turn into healthy democracies and good global citizens.
In her speech, ‘How Democracies Can Shape a Changed Global Economy’, Freeland insisted that we stop supporting autocracies such as Russia and China and focus on trade and investment in the countries of our democratic allies.
Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China have both moved the goalposts far down the field toward autocracy. Both have declared themselves presidents for life, Putin has twice invaded Ukraine and Xi has threatened to attack Taiwan, along with beefing up China’s military and bullying its neighbors in the South China Sea.
China and Russia are the antithesis of democracy, yet we continue to buy their oil and minerals.
But the problem I have with friend-shoring, is its economic…
