Editors' Note: The COVID-19 pandemic shows the vulnerability of open society in democracies to an expansive authoritarian power in the world. Not only does the Chinese government try to cover up its mistakes, but it also falsely publicizes its so-called institutional advantages.

The international community needs to rethink how to protect our ways of life from dictatorships such as China, as our societies, especially our borders, are open to them. In this sense, democracies should learn a deeper lesson from this disaster, that is, national borders cannot limit the calamities that totalitarian systems bring to humankind. We must realize that the pursuit of power by an authoritarian regime is not bounded by its national border, not only in terms of their military and economic expansion, but also in terms of their domestic disasters, which, as we have seen in the pandemic, can easily transcend national boundaries. A growing consensus points towards the Chinese Communist Party stifling freedom of the press and concealing the truth as the initial causes of the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. The outbreak clearly reminds every democracy in the world that trying to coexist peacefully with dictatorships and ignoring their violations of human rights is extremely short-sighted. The democracies must realize that supporting the people in dictatorships for their quest for human rights and the rule of law is not merely a charitable action, but the first line of defense for the democracies themselves.