The 21st-century world has got more democracies than its predecessor. Numbers of autocratic regimes are down to 80 in 2018 from 130 in 1950 and democracies are up and about 99 in 2018 from mere 25 in 1950. Yet, the remaining autocratic regimes’ intensity in so far as their brutalities and human right violation are concerned has not gone down. Some of them have not restricted their activities in their ruling states only. They’re expansionists, and don’t hesitate to go for geographical expansion into other sovereign territories incompatible to their ruled nations’ culture, religion, politics, civilisational behaviour, etc. resulting resistance, bloodshed and crime against humanity. Unfortunately, they use to get their like-minded allies too.

After the death of China’s first Paramount Leader Mao Zedong, who too is the founder of Chinese Communist Party(CCP) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1976 ending his autocratic rule of 27 years, for about four decades, his successors went ahead single-mindedly building Chinese economy, embracing Deng Xiaoping’s the concept of Socialist Market Economy to reach the present status of No.2 in normal GDP and No.1 in terms of PPP, not seen during the rule of nation’s founding father, who tried to build an economy with draconian policies of ‘Big Leap Forward’ (1958-1962) responsible for brutal deaths of more than 40 million people. Apart from building the economy, Communist China too went ahead building the nation’s military to reach the present position of the world’s No.3 most powerful (conventional) defence force. Now, People’s Liberation Army Navy is regarded as the world’s largest Navy with 350 ships and submarines including over 130 major surface combatants. During the period except for a fight with fellow communist-ruled Vietnam in 1979 in which China had a humiliating retreat, the nation was not found involved in a major geographical expansionist adventure, a noticeable departure from Mao-era during which China had completed the annexations -using characteristic communist hegemony and deceit, and force and brutality- Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria and India’s Aksai Chin with mainland China.

Read more at : QUAD Plus to save Indo-Pacific from autocracy (thekootneeti.in)