demi7en 🎗🇪🇺<p>World's democracies condemned the crackdown in Hong Kong, but did nothing to impose costs on the CCP dictatorship. Instead business (read: Chinese exports) only grew and grew. Gotta empower them despots! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ </p><p>Hong Kong's pro-democracy struggle presented an opportunity for democracies to stand up against dictatorship, but we failed miserably.</p><p>Giving the <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/CCP" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CCP</span></a> yet another free pass (after its repressive occupation of Tibet in 1950-1951 and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre) surely emboldened <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>putin</span></a> to invade <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Ukraine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Ukraine</span></a> in 2022.</p><p>Repression of Tibetans, Uighurs, South-Mongolians, Hongkongers... or a billion+ voiceless Chinese brought no consequences, but at least the invasion of *European* Ukraine gave us Europeans a limited wakeup.</p><p>It's not enough. We could have aided developing democracies when the Soviet empire fell in 1989-1991 and *not aided* repressive regimes. Instead we doubled down on doing business without limits and empowered the likes of Chinese dictatorship.</p><p>There are things I love about Europe, and things I am deeply ashamed of. Talking about human rights while empowering despots belongs in the latter category.</p><p>Some foreign individuals did "Stand with Hong Kong" though. At least one here in Mastodon is, as always, still busy fighting authoritarian takeover. Now in her homeland of the USA.</p><p>“Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.“<br>— Nelson Mandela</p><p><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Hongkong" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hongkong</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Tibet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tibet</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Uighurs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Uighurs</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/ccp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ccp</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/china" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>china</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/EuropeanDefence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EuropeanDefence</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/AxisOfDespots" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AxisOfDespots</span></a></p>