It is neither an accident nor a coincidence that China is committing what many call genocide against Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang and that Russia has jailed the dissident Alexei Navalny.
The Chinese need a quiescent Xinjiang because it is a key node of their Eurasia-spanning Belt and Road Initiative. The Kremlin needs government institutions to serve as a cover for wealth accumulation by a gangster elite, and thus sees Navalny as a major threat.
Both countries are in the grip of nervous autocratic systems that cannot afford to offer second chances to anyone. In carrying out their recent abuses, both have implicitly made certain calculations of how the United States and its allies will — or will not — respond.