Make-or-break year for the world really, for the fate of democracy. it s when there are enough illiberal leaders elected that they could together shift geopolitical power. it is the tipping point for the end of democracy, the rise of fascism. i mean think about it like this. would belarus would be a democracy today if russia hadn t stepped in? i think the other part is take a look at the shanghai cooperation organization which is a grouping that was pulled together by china and russia. it uses technology for economic development, right, and then last september look at who they just brought in turkey, iran, myanmar. so this is a kind of death by a thousand cuts globally. and if we don t change the pattern today, we see where it will lead. this becomes a critical moment for us. the philippines in a way is a kind of canary in the coal mine
College educated urban chinese was probably in the few millions. today more than 200 million chinese people have a college education, and they have smart phones and know how to use them. even the legendary great firewall with its army of over 2 million censors struggles to keep up. in the recent years we ve tended to focus on it many problems caused by social media. we ve forgotten the fundamental etof these new technologies is to empower individuals. in russia we see how a similarly closed and unresponsive decision making process can lead to a disaster. as a result of putin s war his country is becoming increasingly isolated and impoverished.
Same industry that you talk about in terms of what needed to be done. those fears turned out to be overblown when looking back 30 years later. is it possible 30 years from now we ll look back and think these fears of china were overblown? of course that is possible. although i you know, given china s scale and size and willingness to do whatever it takes to promote their own industries, i don t think that .comparison there is necessarily perfect, but i will say this. our strategy, our economic strategy isn t about slowing china down at all. it s about investing in america so we can maintain our edge. and as it relates to the export controls, which we re leading here at the commerce department, that s not designed to slow china down either.
Trade representatives there would talk in very similar terms about what needed to be done. those fears turned out to be overblown when looking back 30 years later. is it possible 30 years from now we ll look back and think these fears of china were overblown? of course that is possible. although i you know, given china s scale and size and willingness to do whatever it takes to promote their own industries, i don t think that the compirson there is necessarily perfect. but i will say this. our strategy, our economic strategy isn t about slowing china down at all. it s about investing in america so we can maintain our edge. and as it relates to the export controls, which we re leading
it reminds me of that quote, the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. it is a fight she knows all too well. but first here s my take. over the past few months we ve worried a great deal about the fragility of democracy, from the united states and brazil to sweden and italy, the system seemed to be facing real challenges. in fact, in all of these cases, elections have had the effect of taming many of the most illiberal forces. and at least for now the center has held. meanwhile we re seeing in some of the world s most powerful autocracies signs of deep and structural weaknesses. the most striking example is china where an extraordinary wave of protests is confronting the powers that be. at the heart of the problem is the unwillingness of the central government to end its zero covid