President Biden, tough words on China and Russia need to be backed with action

Just days before President Joe Biden convened a virtual summit of the world's democracies, China announced that it, too, is a democracy.

It is a laughable attempt to grab a shred of legitimacy for a country engaged in the genocide of its Uyghur minority, crushing democracy and press freedom in Hong Kong, and intimidating democratic Taiwan with constant saber rattling.

Like China, other authoritarian regimes such as Russia and Iran go through the motions of democracy even as they stomp the opposition. All three hold elections that somehow never change who holds the levers of power.

The power of symbolism was on display Monday when the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in February in Beijing. No U.S. government official will attend, and neither will representatives of U.S. allies Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Before America took action, China already had denounced the boycott and promised retaliation.

We hope more countries will join the United States and its allies in delivering a message to China that its human rights abuses will not go unanswered. Maybe that's enough for the Olympic Games, which are themselves a symbolic affair intended to unite the world for a moment even as it is dangerously divided.

But in Eastern Europe, talk is not enough.

There, 175,000 Russian troops appear poised to invade democratic Ukraine, where Russia has already incited rebellions on the nation's eastern border and carved off the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

President Biden spoke with President Vladimir Putin to deliver the message that a Russian invasion will be met with crushing sanctions and a beefed up U.S. military presence in Europe.

Clear communication with an aggressor is a good first step, but Russia has shrugged off sanctions before and has paid little price for its seizure of Crimea. Putin might well decide to seize the rest of Ukraine, despite Biden's tough talk.

That's why there needs to be action before Russia invades.

Two steps the United States should seriously consider are reinforcing the Ukrainian military with defensive weapons and exploring ways to stop the Russian Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Western Europe.

Washington has provided Kyiv a few dozen anti-tank missile launchers and hundreds of missiles, along with counterartillery radar systems, to make any Moscow offensive a more difficult affair. The Biden administration should now review its options to quickly do more before Russia completes its military preparations early next year.

And while working closely with European allies to expand sanctions Russia will face after an invasion of the Ukraine, the United States should also ask hard questions about the wisdom of allowing an authoritarian and aggressive Russia to have more leverage over Europe with a new pipeline, even if Russia only threatens to invade Ukraine.

Biden has inherited a world where authoritarian regimes are growing more aggressive while democracies grow more divided. His summit is a good step to change the dynamic, but to truly succeed he'll have to back tough words with resolute action.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff and the USA TODAY network.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics is the right step