Hong Kong was long a British colony. Japan interacted with the US during and after World War II. Taiwan was somewhat under America's wing. I am a bit more concerned with cultures that went directly from kings and emperors to party chairmen without much intervention from the West. There are not enough examples of autocratic governments switching to democracy without interventions, no matter how unsatisfactory some of those interventions were. Democracy, good. Colonial Imperialism?Guest wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:25 pmTaiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong are examples of Asian democracies. Taiwan and Hong Kong are Chinese democracies. Democracy not only works but liberal deomcracy allows people to thrive. Japan was far more autocractic than China, and yet it thrived under democracy. Of course there is a road from autocracy to democracy. There are other factors, but this is enough for now.Bob Butler wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 9:55 pmAutocratic cultures like China do not respond well to non violent attempts at change. They simply ignore the will of the people. There may have to be some sort of violence to overthrow the CCP. Until now, the people have been reluctant to embrace it. With the Chinese economy going south, the economic problems could trigger the violence. I'm hardly sure that will happen, but I'd like to think there is still a road from autocracy to democracy.
I agree that democracy is better than autocracy. I'm just not sure yet how the CCP, North Korea and others of that ilk will make the swap.
As an aside, I bumped into an internet video the other day that reviewed how the European Union was in effect scattered about the world. France never let go of it's old empire. There have been debates in the many former colonies about the pride of shaking off the last remnants of colonial imperialism and the advantages of being affiliated with the European Union.