Jimmy Lai Quotes

We have to implant democracies where there are now dictatorships.

When Xi Jinping came to power, there were a series of hints that market-based capitalism would be allowed to move forward under his leadership. At the first real threat, they've fallen over themselves to impose government control.

China … has gone from being ruled by strongmen with personal credibility to leaders who are constrained by collective decision making, term limits and other norms, public opinion, and their own technocratic characters.

Xi Jinping is one of the strongest and most capable revolutionary leaders I have met in my life.

Back in 2014, my fellow Hong Kongers and I hoped to use nonviolent means to fight for our territory's democratic system - a simple right, promised by Beijing, to choose our own leader.

Aspiring dictators sometimes win elections, and elected leaders sometimes govern badly and threaten their neighbors.History demonstrates that democracy usually follows good governance, not the reverse.

Cuba wants to get rid of a dictator, and baseball needs a dictator.

And so I have studied, I have to tell you, revolutions and uprisings for a long time. They are all slightly different, but what they all look for is some kind of a mechanism to go from an authoritarian system to an open, democratic system.

Democracy in China is like Viagra; no such thing as free elections.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Latin America moved decisively away from military rule and toward civilian democracy.

With Taiwan, it took about 40 years to go from an authoritarian to a democratic society.

The biggest novelty of 2013 will be new leadership in China. Very little is known about the views of the new leaders - who will rule the country for ten years. But we do know they're the first generation of Chinese leaders who have spent the majority of their lives in a China 'opening up' to the rest of the world.

China doesn't have a single leader. It has - a first among equals is the president, and his name will probably be Xi Jinping, almost certainly.

There will, in my view, come a time when there has to be some kind of political denouement inside China, because the newly enriched generation might put up with being told what to do by their rulers - but their children, who will take prosperity for granted, will not.

We must always remember that the Chinese revolution was not a peasant's revolution, but one of the extreme Right.

The free world should not wait for dictatorial regimes to consent to reform.

Political systems in the Middle East are totally dysfunctional and we are going to have to open them up.

Having for centuries had no sense of self esteem outside the state, we found ourselves wanting our old rulers back, the rulers who provided a sense of order, inspired patriotic fervor and the belief that we were great nation. We yearned for monumental--if repressive--leaders like Ivan the Terrible or Stalin. Yes they killed and imprisoned but how great were our victories and parades. So what if Stalin ruled by fear? That was simply a fear of one’s life. However terrifying, it was not as existentially threatening as the fear of freedom, of individual choice, with no one but oneself to blame if democracy turned into disarray and capitalism into corruption.

History indicates that indiscriminately copying Western political systems is a blind alley for China.

Does any of you believe that we can solve our country's problems in five years? That is why we do not have this nonsense of elections.

The peaceful path out of totalitarianism has never been tested.

Naturally the common people don't want war ... but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

This country has been without stern, sails and wind, and it needs someone at the helm. We are doomed to live in an authoritarian state until genuine democracy, which should not be confused with anarchy, can be set up.

How can you ever ensure that you will get a beneficent dictator?

Democracy and freedom … are based on democratic institutions, the rule of law, and a civil society. None of these Arab states have any of these to any significant degree.