Disruptors of the world, unite! If I had my way the world’s most irritating opponents of police states would gather for a pint every Thursday (Karl Marx’s old digs in Dean Street would do fine) to pool their subversive knowledge. For years geeks like Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong and Russian reporter Ivan Golunov have been a pain in the side of presidents Xi and Putin. Yet, to general amazement, they have both been freed from jail over the past week, their cells unlocked it seems because public pressure has shown the limits of autocratic rule.
Don’t cheer too soon, though. Both the Russian and the Chinese regimes have survived by co-opting as well as muzzling critics. Political power plays are under way in both