Authoritarian Leaders Are Weaker Than They Look, Thanks to Covid
Xi, Putin, and Erdogan may be confident and belligerent abroad, but they’re on shakier ground at home.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, in Beijing in 2017.
Photographer: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
China’s President Xi Jinping is cracking down on Big Tech, rattling sabers over Taiwan, and testing hypersonic missiles in space. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken on global financial markets and briefly threatened to throw out ambassadors from 10 countries. And in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin moved enough troops toward Ukraine to convince the U.S. that invasion could be imminent. Almost two years into a pandemic that left many democracies reeling, authoritarians around the globe are getting feisty.
But scratch through the rhetoric—sometimes triumphant, other times belligerent—and much of what these strongmen do also reveals their domestic vulnerability, because the pandemic has been tough on them, too. Many failed the Covid-19 response test at least as dismally as their counterparts in democratic countries. The resulting mix of insecurity at home and confidence abroad is a recipe for instability and risk.