These are extremly wealthy shitholes who give nothing about democratic principles or human life at all.
You either play by their rules or you better don't set your foot on their land.
The world has shown ruthless dictator Mohammed Bin Salman that he can murder foreign dissidents and get away with minor consequences, such as pulling a few investments from the country.
The dude even got a visit and fist bump from the US President afterward…so I doubt he’ll care much about unleashing his power on more critics.
Free trade furthers the ruthless more then the free.
Moral obligations are just standing in the way, yes.
I'm no expert but I think the argument goes that by allowing free trade we create links between societies, as well as offering more opportunities for putting political pressure for change (even if change is far slower than the people suffering under those regimes deserve) vs the alternative of North Korea style alienation?
Is there a better option? The US+allies could kill those authoritarian leaders, invade those countries, "liberate" the people, etc etc but that doesn't exactly have a great track record for improving the countries invaded...
They pick these victims from time to time to remind their power and suppress other people.
Isn't Thailand a straight-up military dictatorship?