In an address to the House of Commons in 1947, Winston Churchill quipped that "democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all those others that have been tried".
Decisive action, authoritarian leaders whipping up nationalist fervour and a sudden rise in living standards and global influence — all achieved without the niceties and the need for compromise. It was a heady mixture that prompted a lurch to the right in many Western nations.Both Mr Putin and Mr Xi can be accused of over-reach with their decisions in 2022.
As the West isolates Russia and retreats from China, encouraging both into each other's embrace, the costs globally will be profound.Premier Li Keqiang says China is facing bigger economic challenges this year than when the pandemic first hit in 2020. After almost three years of waging a cultural revolution against property developers and technology entrepreneurs, Beijing suddenly is back-peddling. Pronouncements that housing is for shelter not investment have been replaced by urgent measures to kickstart real estate investment.Almost a dozen large property developers, including China Evergrande, have either collapsed or are on the brink.
Without foreign vaccines or a massive ramp-up in booster shots, there's a stark choice: either a potentially huge death toll or an economy facing an even greater slump than two years ago.The rouble is shooting the lights out. After a catastrophic decline in the immediate aftermath of sanctions being imposed in response to Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine, the rouble has recovered all its losses, soaring 150 per cent to its highest level since 2018.
Usually, when an economy is in trouble, its currency falls, acting as a natural shock absorber by making exports more competitive and delivering foreign income.
my god - WTF wrote this China is a best Nazism reinvigorated Russia is an oligarchs fk fest
hmmm….the whole world’s economy is floundering though
Time will be their enemy
Free market democracy? Neither of the two countries had a free market or democracy. Both were tightly controlled by their governments. Who’s script are you reading from?
Well that's an interesting take..
Haha
For more than half a century, hostile forces, countries and media have been cursing, attacking and discrediting China in different ways. But China has become increasingly powerful, developed, civilized and wealthy at an alarming rate. No one has the ability to stop China's rise
Xi and Putin look for distractions from domestic failures, expansion and war historical favourites so the world quickly becomes less safe ?
Yet another embarrassing denial of reality. But that's Ian Verrender's job, after all.
. Doesn't IanVerrender sound more and more like stangrant ... ABC must have cut the ghostwriter budget so they have to share... What do you reckon? Stupid China & Russia ran out of puff? Or the West has orchestrated their demise to ensure they're kept at bay? We're at war. .
I know I should read the article, not the headline. But surely someone should have read the headline, ideally before posting?
BS their economies are doing ok World economies are post pandemic recovering
Oh ABC 🤦♀️. Free market democracy 😂, while locking down 23-million people in Shanghai, stopping all public transportation in Beijing, declaring an unwarranted war on a sovereign country……..free market democracy 🙄.
Yeh flouNdering 🤔🤣
they did *what* now?
Perhaps because of overwhelming corruption and the demands of their citizens for more freedom.
There was very little “democracy” in any of their “free market” dealings. What they did was completely one sided. They got what they want and need tariff free and impose massive duty on anything they want to control, at the drop of a hat.