Just deleted what I was writing to read this before posting anything else.
Yes my points are too cut and dry, nuance doesn't convey well in short forum posts. I much prefer to have these discussions with a beer in hand and hours to kill.
Everything you have said is right and though
@Squidfayce doesn't agree it's what I have been trying to convey. I must not be communicating it as well as I would like.
What I have been trying to say in a nut shell is yes Russia and China are authoritarian regimes that do atrocious things to their people and other countries.
One of the points I have been trying to unsuccessfully make is that we have, to a point, undermined ourselves with our foreign policy by misusing international institutions such as the WTO. I have been trying to identify that this isn't a completely one way street. The diminishing of the international institutions the West put in place has helped the rise of these states.
There is nothing we can do? That's not correct, all of the corporation's that do business in China that are listed in Western stock exchanges can be regulated by Western governments. Requiring supply chain transparency and not allowing companies to do business unless it's verified under the modern slavery conventions would quickly have results but would also cost a lot of MONEY. For all of our arguments this is why we don't do anything, it will cost a lot of money and people in power will probably lose their positions.
last post on this for me because this is a topic for drinking beer because we are so fortunate to live in such a free country with such luxury, not for back and forth on a MTB forum.