Chris Patten: Democracy and the need to be decent

Russia and China are clearly trying to weaken liberal democracies - and so open societies must unite to defend those values, writes Chris Patten

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong poses with the nomination papers as he files for his candidacy in the Legislative Council elections in September in Hong Kong. He filed to stand as a candidate in an upcoming legislative election, even as the city’s new national security law could disadvantage opposition candidates from taking office. Picture: AP Photo/Vincent Yu

We have long been dangerously slow to recognise, let alone resist, the undermining of liberal democracies by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s post-KGB thugocracy and China’s more economically successful version of aggressive Leninism.

I saw the Russian side of the problem up close when I was the European Union’s commissioner for external affairs from 1999 to 2004.