In 2009 Liu gave a public lecture in which he voiced his opinion that, in order to avoid rising costs due to China's high rate of inflation, his ministry must "seize the opportunity, build more railways, and build them fast." Before 2011 the Railway Ministry acted as its own regulator and was virtually unsupervised by the central government. Liu personally attempted to intimidate academics critical of the pace of the high-speed railway's construction, and ignored Japanese warnings that his trains were being operated at speeds 25% greater than what was considered safe in Japan.