I think that currently the politicians in democracies do not understand how they should confront authoritarian regimes like China and Russia. It can be very simple – threatening such regimes a war unless they choose political liberalization.
When Hitler started oppressing mass media in 1933, the France could threaten him – stop this unless we start a war. I am sure this was an easy way to prevent all horrors of the WW2. The Germans were eager to fight for their country, their “fatherland” as they understood it; but could they fight for political repressions in Germany, for closing independent mass media? I am sure that no. The same could happen in 2003 in Russia, when Putin started to take away the TV channels from Russian Oligarchs (NTV Ren TV).
And it is not too late to perform this now. Possibly soon Putin will block youtube in Russia (if not – eventually youtube will destroy the state propaganda in Russia). If the West threatens in this case the missile strikes on Russian centers of state TV channels – this will easily end the rule of Putin in Russia. The Russians surely will not fight for blocking youtube, for supporting the Putin’s lies.
The same with China. If I am not mistaken, the Chinese people are quite unhappy with the digital totalitarianism (state social rating) and surely will not fight for it.
I don't plagiarize
