Hoover InstitutionStanford University

Published May 20, 2021

Resisting China’s sharp-power activities will require the democracies of the world to make clear that they can function transparently and effectively. Failure to show the strength of democracy will make it difficult in the long run to counter China’s global power ambitions.

Additional Resources:

  • Watch “Democracy, Good Governance, and Pluralism,” with Larry Diamond, via the Hoover Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. Available here
  • Watch “Larry Diamond on Promoting Liberty and Free Societies” on PolicyEd. Available here.
  • Watch “Larry Diamond on Countering Chinese Propaganda with Truth” on PolicyEd. Available here.

Cast

Larry Diamond

Larry Diamond

We are in a superpower marathon with the People’s Republic of China. We, the democracies of the world: Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the European Union democracies and of course Australia and the United States. We need to make clear that democracies can function transparently and effectively to, first of all, counter China’s sharp power activities. And second of all to work effectively: to grow economically, to deliver a better deal to their own societies. If we don’t show that democracies can function effectively, dynamically, to deliver economic growth, it’s going to be hard in the long run to counter China’s ambition to project global sharp power around the world.

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