They could also easily argue that their authoritarian model was a better choice than the American one—not just for other governments, but for their people as well. As one prominent African entrepreneur put it to me, summing up how billions of people likely feel around the world: “I mean, one can argue with China and say, well, China is not democratic. But when you look at the results—hundreds of millions of people brought out of poverty in a very short period of time—one must say, well, okay, how do we learn from the way that has happened?”
