As authoritarian regimes around the world understand only too well, our liberal democratic values have been an effective source of soft power for decades. They can be promoted in the following ways:
- Most American governments have been vocal advocates for our values. Visible support for dissidents within authoritarian regimes, criticism for human rights violations, and even military intervention to stop humanitarian disasters are part of this package.
- If the need to support authoritarian regimes against greater evils makes talking about our values impractical in particular instances, our system can at least serve as a shining example of the success of those values.
Trump doesn’t do either of these things. He made it clear almost immediately that America would no longer lecture friendly authoritarian governments; human rights are only a stick with which to beat Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. As to the shining example, Trump has consistently maintained that we have a “deep state,” that our media put out fake news, that our tactics overseas are no more scrupulous than our competitors’, that the judicial system is biased against him, and that the rule of law is a fraud.
Xi surely can’t believe his good fortune. He cultivates soft power; Trump throws ours away.