DISINFO: Russia and China are defending the democratic world order
SUMMARY
Russia and China are defending a democratic world order, helping build a more just international system. Both countries jointly defend the principles of a just democratic world order based on international law, sovereignty, equality.
RESPONSE
The allegation is demonstrably false. Russia and China are non-democratic regimes, scoring only 2 and 2.1 out of 10 in the latest Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index available when this disinformation story appeared, and experiencing a fall of 56 and 29 points respectively since 2006 according to the same source. Freedom House labels both countries as Not Free and ranks them in the positions 13 and 9 out of 167 in its Global Freedom ranking. Both states have also perpetrated actions against international law, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or China’s construction of military bases in contested islands in the South China Sea despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruling against Beijing’s territorial claims.
The goal of this disinformation story is to portray authoritarian regimes under a positive light and as preferable to democratic states, a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation message. See other examples in our database, such as claims that only authoritarian states and closed societies will be able to protect their populations from the coronavirus and from future pandemics, that the West’s goal is to destroy Russia and China because they challenge the unipolar liberal world order, that studies shows that China is more democratic than the US (and Russia almost as democratic as the US), that Russia is a global leader in democratic procedure, or that Russia is the global champion of free speech.