Can a spate of deals transcend a clash of convictions?

Economic give and take often strengthens the hand of autocrats rather than nurture democracy

- SHONAR LALA

After a tumultuous month, the US and China seem headed for a trade deal, with Donald Trump probably dreaming of billions more as he lands in the Gulf. Once upon a time, human rights, advancing democracy, peace and security would have been foremost on the US president's agenda. But the world order has changed abundantly since the defining moment of post-modern history, 12 June 1987, during the dizzying heights of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union. It was on this day that Ronald Reagan uttered perhaps his most famous words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Fast forward to 1989: the Berlin Wall crumbled and brought the Iron Curtain crashing down with it. America, it appeared, had emerged as the winner of the Cold War together with capitalism and liberal democracy. Communism as a political ideology was debunked and disparaged. Pieces of the Wall went on sale at huge prices in what seemed like a celebration of capitalism's victory over communism. The uprising in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June that year added to the impression that the days of totalitarianism were numbered. Earlier that year, Francis Fukuyama had presciently summed up the moment in his article, The End of History? Human social evolution in which rival ideologies marked the development of history, he argued, was now at an end. He was inspired by Hegel and Marx, who had both written about their competing versions of the pinnacle or 'end' of human development. Now totalitarian states had been shown to fail, while the political and economic principles of liberal democracy thrived, Fukuyama noted; hence history was over.