Comment by bluGill
12 days ago
> You can not make a country a liberal democracy by opening up trade with them. It failed with China, it failed with Russia.
It worked with South Korea, and Taiwan. (Japan and Germany, but they were on the losing side of a war with us which is a confounding factor). It is by no means perfect, but I've yet to see anyone suggest something else that has any chance of working.
SK and Taiwan weren't communist dictatorships.
Japan and Germany did not get convinced by the virtues of liberal democracy and free trade. They were both forcibly converted under US occupation.
> SK and Taiwan weren't communist dictatorships.
They were by all means military dictatorships, just not communist.