> If the Russians or the Chinese want democracy, they'll get it on their own

There's literally a saying about USSR (which by proxy now applies to Russia) which roughly translates to: half the population in prison and another half as guards. You can't get it when army, police and whole government apparatus is aimed against it. Times have changed, people are not willing to die en masse for a change when one single cop can kill a crowd.

They literally killed 132 hostages during a saving operation [1], how many do you think will die when they start shooting the crowds?

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis