Authoritarian powers are increasingly collaborating to scale repression across borders, and Russia and China together account for nearly half of 72,000 such events since 2024, according to a new dataset.
Nonprofit Action for Democracy has published the Authoritarian Collaboration Index, which collates global authoritarian activity in near real-time. A recent report on events from 2024 to 2026 found that Russia and China “sit at the center” of global authoritarianism, building out infrastructure and routine events for collaboration between authoritarian powers to grow.
“Authoritarian cooperation is becoming institutional: recurring forums, media alliances, and training platforms are hardening ad hoc coordination into durable infrastructure,” the report reads. “It is also becoming routinised — practices like reciprocal sham election monitoring and cross-border dissident deportation now operate as low-friction, self-reinforcing defaults.”…
Russia, China Expanding Global Authoritarianism Infrastructure: Study
