Dealings with Dictators Quotes

“Because action proactively shapes the future, while waiting means simply enduring whatever happens next. The price of passivity is higher. Chaos would cost us more.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“America by itself would achieve nothing. It would isolate and weaken itself by decoupling on its own—a large island on the other side of the Atlantic. Europe alone would achieve even less—and become China’s Eurasian annex. A transatlantic alliance between the United States and Europe would create a founding axis of free trade, which would quickly attract other free democracies.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“Our willingness to take risks will largely depend on our risk awareness. If people’s “sense of urgency” is low, they prefer to leave things as they are. If their “sense of urgency” is high, their openness to change increases, along with its associated risks. The result is a trade-off. In the end, you choose the lesser of the two evils.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“The problem is: Centrally controlled, turbo-charged state capitalism can actually be more successful than a free market economy. Totalitarian capitalism is faster and more ruthless. Securing approval for a new airport can take years or even decades in a democracy, because citizen action and petitions slow things down. But managed state capitalism doesn’t bother with any of that. The will of the government instantly becomes capitalist reality. Beijing’s new airport was built in just under five years. If a building got in the way of the new project, then it was simply demolished. Nondemocratic power can make things faster and more efficient. And given this, arguing that China’s growth will somehow just fizzle out is dangerous. It cannot be used to justify Western inaction.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“The findings were—and still are today—alarming. Based on the USTR report and research on technology transfers and intellectual property, Trump further restricted Chinese access to investment in the high-tech sector. In response, China retaliated with its own tariffs, and accused the United States government both of triggering the trade war and trying to slow China’s growth. This makes the continuation of the decoupling policy during Joe Biden’s administration all the more surprising. United States rhetoric and diplomacy have become milder and more authoritative, but their strategic substance in this area is strikingly similar to Biden’s predecessor: Punitive tariffs against China have remained almost unchanged. Biden even stepped up the pace slightly by compiling a blacklist of sixty Chinese companies in 2020—which he has continuously updated since then—that United States firms may no longer do business with. Shortly afterward, the United States joined the EU, Canada, and the UK in imposing sanctions on Chinese officials in connection with human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States called on China to condemn the attack. China in turn blamed the United States for the war. A few weeks later, in May 2022, Chinese authorities and state-affiliated companies were told to replace American-made computers with domestic brands. Around fifty million computers were affected.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“He is asked about the company’s car plant in the Xinjiang region, home to millions of Uyghurs, and his position on human rights violations in China, especially in the Uyghur camps. The transcript reads as follows: Reporter: “And are you proud to be associated with what China is doing in this part of the world?” Diess: “No. But we are absolutely proud to also create workplaces in that region, which we think is very useful.” Reporter: “But Xinjiang is something you’re not proud to be associated with in terms of what the Chinese government is doing to the Uyghur people?” Diess: “I can’t judge this. Sorry.” Reporter: “You can’t judge it?” Diess: “No.” Reporter: “But you know about it?” Diess: “I don’t know what you’re referring to.” Reporter: “You don’t know about China’s re-education camps for a million Uyghur people that it has referred to as re-education camps as part of its counterterror threat in the west of this country? You don’t know about that?” Diess: “I’m not aware of that.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“China is already one of the major leaders in extracting and processing rare earths, like lithium or cobalt, used in the developments of batteries, smartphones, and more. In fact, Europe imports 98 percent of its rare earth needs from China. In the long term, America and Europe might be able to break free of this dependence, but not in the short term. Once more, China has leverage that could weaken, if not largely paralyze, the American and European economies overnight. The political implications are obvious. The United States will think twice before mounting a military defense of Taiwan’s independence, lest it put Silicon Valley at risk.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“Xi has abandoned consensus rule at the top of the Party, rejects any separation of powers, and has abolished the two-term limit on the so-called presidency. He could thus remain in power for life. Many already speak of a personality cult like Mao’s. His untrammeled power is also cementing feudal conditions in the Communist People’s Republic.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“In August 2022, for instance, keylogging capabilities recording every keystroke on a smartphone were found in TikTok. Experts also found one such program—alongside other mass data collection features–embedded in the CCP app Xuexi Qiangguo (“Study and Strengthen the Nation”), which all party members and public administration employees are obliged to use. Video surveillance in cities has been perfected with advanced facial recognition and motion detectors. This surveillance even goes beyond territorial borders. China has reportedly established overseas police service stations, particularly in Europe, through which it is “convincing” dissidents to return to China.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“China’s thinking is ambitious and long-term. Ambitious, because a country with over 1.4 billion people and a GDP of over $17.7 trillion in 2021 has to think big. And long-term because China can afford to think long-term.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“Digitization: Germany fell asleep on the job. According to the Digital Economy and Society Index, in 2022—one year after Merkel left office—Germany sits literally just above the EU average, and Lithuania, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Malta, Spain, Luxemburg, Estonia, Austria, Slovenia, and France are all doing better. German administrative bodies still work largely in analog mode, with pen and paper. Internet access and cell phone coverage is poor. As the newsmagazine Der Spiegel put it: “Germany is a FAX machine.” And if Angela Merkel had had her way, the Chinese state-owned company Huawei would have won the contract to expand the German 5G network.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“The pictures went viral globally and with them, a message that seemed like an invitation: all refugees welcome. Her move was widely criticized. By going alone on the refugee matter, Merkel divided Germany and Europe. She prompted the rise of the populist party AfD in Germany and turned long-standing friends like Eastern Europe—who had been long admirers of her politics—into foes.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“When a society loses this ability, it is headed toward hatred and violence. In America, a direct line is visible from Kellyanne Conway’s statement about “alternative facts” to naked violence.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“When that does not happen, because facts are treated like opinions, an attitude emerges that is a reversal of the idea of enlightenment. Belief takes precedence over knowledge. It is the end of democracy.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“Conway’s remarks were like a dam breaking; they were the beginning of a political culture that turns facts into things that can be chosen and asserted at will. It was the destruction of agreed-upon information as the binding basis for knowledge. It was the destruction of reliability and fairness and thus of trust. The negative effects on a democratic society cannot be overestimated.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“Hardly anyone has weakened democracy from within as much as the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump. But it would be uninteresting, predictable, and unjust to write about his failings without even briefly illuminating the other side of the coin. The polarization of American society is certainly not only or even primarily his work. Left-wing politics has contributed its share too, by being increasingly disconnected from the priorities and needs of large parts of the population and full of self-righteousness. Also, if one disregards Trump’s narcissistic self-dramatization and an erratic political style that shows little respect for democratic institutions, one sees an administration that made three important course corrections: the economic decoupling from dictatorships, especially China; the growing pressure on Europe to fund and strengthen NATO; and a critical stance against the abusive market-dominating practices of Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and, most importantly, Chinese surveillance tools and platforms. These policies have all been continued in Joe Biden’s presidency. In style and language, their differences are vast; in substance, strikingly few. Underplaying Trump’s leadership on these fronts does no favors to a substantive critique of his democracy-damaging legacy. From the beginning of his presidential bid, Donald Trump used aggressive and incendiary language, presented simplistic worldviews, and pointedly depicted his opponents as the enemy (US, the good guys, versus THEM, the bad guys). This is the emotional fuel of polarization. His rapid rise was based in part on relativizing racism, and throughout his term, Trump downplayed any cases of police violence against blacks, including the murder of George Floyd in 2020, as isolated incidents. He called protests against racism “un-American.” Deeply associated with Donald Trump’s administration are the terms “fake news” and “alternative facts.” And it is here that lie the most dangerous, democracy-damaging legacies of his time in office. Fake news has been around as long as news has been around. For thousands of years, it spread as rumors in the marketplaces and gossip behind closed doors. Today, it spreads globally within seconds on social media. So fake news is not new. It’s just become more dangerous. And it becomes a problem for democracy when social groups, political parties, or NGOs accuse the other side of falsifying facts and label facts that do not serve their own agenda as fake. Trump not only reinforced this tendency, he elevated it in his political communications and campaigns.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“Two colleagues who up until recently were happily wandering in and out of our offices, enjoying a sunny espresso at the Ullstein Bar just behind us, have been forced to sit in a windowless cell for ninety-two days. No contact with the outside world, no proper legal representation, and no prospect of a fair trial—let alone release. Please take a moment to imagine what it would be like to spend ninety-two days sitting in a hole with no contact with the outside world—as opposed to standing here sipping champagne. It’s important for us to imagine this in detail, because it could have been any of us.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“As Gideon Rachman summarizes in his book The Age of the Strongman: “Since 2000 the rise of the strongman leader has become a central feature of global politics. In capitals as diverse as Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Ankara, Budapest, Warsaw, Manila, Riyadh and Brasilia, self-styled ‘strongmen’ (and, so far, they are all men) have risen to power. Typically, these leaders are nationalists and cultural conservatives, with little tolerance for minorities, dissent or the interests of foreigners.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“As the CEO of a publishing company, I’ve met with many politicians over the years—democratic ones and not so democratic ones. I’ve had many conversations with Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel, and Olaf Scholz. And, with the exception of Donald Trump, I’ve met every former American president of the past few decades, starting with George H. W. Bush. The funniest and most surprising encounter I ever had with a head of state was with George W. Bush. Henry Kissinger had suggested that if I would like to meet him, I should get my assistant to pass on my next United States travel dates. Which she did, including a trip to a Time Warner board meeting just two days later. That evening, on the French Atlantic coast, I got an email from the White House: The p resident would be delighted to meet me the day after tomorrow, July 25, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. in the Oval Office. Not only was I amazed at the speed with which the meeting had been scheduled, I was also in the depths of rural France—and logistically challenged. First, there was no connecting flight that could get me to Washington on time. Second, my eleven-year-old son was with me and I had promised that he could come to New York this time. In a cloak-and-dagger operation, my office organized a private plane which picked us up on the runway of Angoulême Airport the following day and dropped us off in Washington nine hours later.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“And we Germans didn’t see any of it as our responsibility. Germany is the world champion in Gratismut—the empty courage that incurs no risks. The art of taking riskless risks. The footage from Ukraine is deeply moving. Soldiers in combat gear in Odesa playing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” in front of their military barricades. Illia Bondarenko playing a Ukrainian folk song in a bunker in Kyiv together with violinists from all over the world. These are gestures of strength and solidarity, in the most emotional and universal language of the world: music.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“And we Germans didn’t see any of it as our responsibility. Germany is the world champion in Gratismut—the empty courage that incurs no risks. The art of taking riskless risks.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“In all of these cases, further escalation was a risk. And this risk was cited yet again as the reason for non-intervention in the Ukraine war. The escalation-avoidance theory is based on a false assumption: that autocratic or dictatorial aggressors will be satisfied if they are allowed to achieve their initial goal. There is very little evidence to support this in Putin’s case. It was just this kind of naïveté that allowed him to annex Crimea in 2014. He drew just one conclusion from it all: Escalate further.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“War is terrible and tragic. But Putin’s attack on Ukraine and freedom had one indirectly positive effect: Opportunistic economic and trade policies lost their innocence. For business is never just business; it always involves more. And, in light of the Russian war against Ukraine and the Western values, business has never been so political. Even if a business wants to be and to act apolitical, almost everything it does or doesn’t do has a political impact. Whether we like it or not, one purpose of business is politics.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“Time and again, I heard him say: Germans started the war; nothing’s more terrible than war; there must never be war again. I was raised to be a pacifist, but never truly became one.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“A phrase that is fatally reminiscent of the German far-right politician Alexander Gauland’s horrific description of the twelve years of Nazi rule as a “mere bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history.” When an Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) politician says something like this, it is rightly criticized as intolerable. When it comes from the climate movement, many just think it’s cool. In an interview with the news magazine Spiegel, Hallam later said: “Climate change is just the tubes that the gas comes down in the gas chamber. It’s just a mechanism through which one generation kills the next generation.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“One of the main accusations and “proof” of the need for a boycott is that Zabludowicz has invested in Palantir. Its “main offense”: cooperation with the NSA and other secret services of exclusively democratic nations. Instead of describing Palantir, which is currently also playing a role in supporting Ukraine in its defense against the Russian war of aggression and in Israel in its defense against Hamas terror, as an important instrument in the international fight against terrorism, i.e. as a quasi-protective power of democracy, it is depicted as the epitome of evil in the woke milieu. Supporting Palantir is a welcome reason to cancel an art collection. Increasingly long lists of artists who have withdrawn their work from the Zabludowicz Collection are appearing on the Internet. The demands are coming thick and fast. It is not about weakening, it is about “the end,” the destruction of the collection. The anti-Israeli and antisemitic BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), which among other things propagates the boycott of Israeli products all over the world (in sad continuity with the Nazi call “Don’t buy from Jews”), is largely behind the activities. The climax of the hate campaign was a conversation that Anita and Poju Zabludowicz had to have with the board of the Tate Gallery in spring 2022. In a friendly and understanding manner, Anita Zabludowicz was advised to resign from the Tate Council in order to prevent damage to the museum. Anita Zabludowicz politely asked what exactly they were accusing her of, what she had done wrong. The answer was a shrug of the shoulders. They feared the damage that some outraged artists and curators committed to the woke movement might do to the Tate. In short, the Tate, one of the most powerful cultural institutions in the world, bowed to the Zeitgeist. Following instead of leading.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“One of the main accusations and “proof” of the need for a boycott is that Zabludowicz has invested in Palantir. Its “main offense”: cooperation with the NSA and other secret services of exclusively democratic nations. Instead of describing Palantir, which is currently also playing a role in supporting Ukraine in its defense against the Russian war of aggression and in Israel in its defense against Hamas terror, as an important instrument in the international fight against terrorism, i.e. as a quasi-protective power of democracy, it is depicted as the epitome of evil in the woke milieu. Supporting Palantir is a welcome reason to cancel an art collection.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“And Germany, because of its history, can play a special role in this. In Israel, Shlomo Zabludowicz is still revered today as a national hero. His son Poju has tried to lead a professional life independent of this legacy and has been a major investor in real estate and technology companies (including the big data company Palantir).”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“The sheepdog’s job is to herd the flock, to make sure that it goes where the shepherd wants it to go, as united as possible. The sheepdog does not focus on the center of the flock. His full attention is on the sheep that are about to stray. The sheepdog always circles the flock, looking for strays. He guards the edges. As soon as a sheep breaks out of formation and runs a few feet too far to the left or right, he jumps up and frightens or bites it, driving it back into the flock. He doesn’t kill it; he threatens and intimidates it, and all the sheep in the flock learn what not to do. Deviate. That may be a good thing for flocks of sheep. But we don’t need sheepdogs in a free society.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy

“This is because under their influence artistic expression is assumed to have a lack of ambiguity that great art can never have. Art is always ambivalent, often ironically oscillating, and in many ways can only be understood in the context of the time in which it was created. The saddest thing about this approach, however, is that it avoids or prevents the very thing that makes critical discussion possible in the first place: debate—constructive debate about the right way forward and the critical assessment of past mistakes that would promote woke consciousness in the true, good sense of the word.”
― Mathias Döpfner, Dealings with Dictators: A CEO's Guide to Defending Democracy