“Democracy versus Authoritarianism” has been the most recent characterization of the West’s struggle against the rest, whether the overall struggle is dated back 500 years to include traditional colonialism or merely 100 years to begin with the capitalist fight against communism. This characterization has become problematic because not all Western countries can now objectively be classified as working democracies. The US is governed far more as an oligarchy, despite having legally guaranteed democratic rights. The wellbeing of ordinary Americans has decreased year-on-year for decades and it has been demonstrated that preferences of the majority of US citizens cede to policies reflecting elite interests. On the other hand, nations with alternative governance forms that effectively control powerful oligarchs, notably China and Russia, have markedly increased the economic and social wellbeing of their citizens. Yet each limitation placed on oligarch power triggers strong condemnation and even aggression from the West.  In a period when China has peacefully lifted about 800 million of its own people out of poverty, the United States has taken economic wellbeing and political power from the majority of citizens and passed it to a wealthy elite, launched dozens of overt and covert regime-change operations to topple governments limiting oligarch power, and now openly prepares for a war against China without any rational justification. The conceit of “free world democracy versus authoritarianism” has come to lack all explanatory value. A better criterion marking when the West turns against the rest appears to be when a country limits the power of internationally connected oligarchs. If that is indeed the case, this behavior would be difficult to distinguish from colonialism. This essay explores the validity of such a reconceptualization.

About the Speaker:

David C. Donald is Emeritus Professor in the Law Faculty of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and an attorney at law in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

His publications have focused on corporate law and securities market structure, with an emphasis on comparative law and political economy questions in regulatory models and market design. His teaching at CUHK was mainly in company and securities law, as well as the history of common law.

David also taught law at Goethe University, National Taiwan University and China University of Political Science and Law. He has practiced commercial law in Washington DC, Italy and Germany. In Honolulu, David assists small businesses, the Mediation Center of the Pacific, the Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority and the Hawaiʻi State Certified Arbitration Program within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Register here to attend the seminar on or before 28 May 2026, 12:30pm (Hong Kong Time).