Fulfilling one of his campaign promises, President Joe Biden held a two day summit with 110 world leaders to discuss how to uphold democracy in the face of growing authoritarianism. Though participants dedicated a “year of action,” there are no tangible, measurable benchmarks to track success.

China seized the moment to organize authoritarian leaders for their own movement to quash human rights. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s office has not yet determined timing for the summit because the autocrats stubbornly cannot agree on a date for the in-person event. Also, China is mandating that every leader test negative for covid for 12 consecutive days before entering their country and endure a 12 day heavily monitored quarantine thereafter. This proves challenging as most autocrats cannot be away from their anti-humanitarian efforts for such an extended period of time.

Some of the big names for the event are none other than Putin, Lukashenko, Diaz-Canel, and surprisingly Texas Governor Greg Abbott. When asked why the Texas governor was included in the summit, Xi explained, “He is our guest of honor! All of our attendees demonstrate various forms of aggression very well. Of course Putin with Ukraine, Lukashenko’s creative use of migrants to flood Poland, and Diaz-Canel’s efficient crack down of protestors. However, we can all learn from how the great governor of Texas has deftly crushed so many people’s and business’ rights by use of executive orders in a supposedly democratic country. He is a celebrated hero in autocratic circles.”