Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future

Written by Dan Wang

Narrated by Jonathan Yen

For close to a decade, technology analyst Dan Wang―"a gifted observer of contemporary China" (Ross Douthat)―has been living through the country's astonishing, messy progress. China's towering bridges, gleaming railways, and sprawling factories have improved economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout the society. This reality―political repression and astonishing growth―is not a paradox, but rather a feature of China's engineering mindset.



In Breakneck, Wang blends political, economic, and philosophical analysis with reportage to reveal a new framework for understanding China―one that helps us see America more clearly, too. While China is an engineering state, relentlessly pursuing megaprojects, the United States has stalled. America has transformed into a lawyerly society, reflexively blocking everything, good and bad.



Blending razor-sharp analysis with immersive storytelling, Wang offers a gripping portrait of a nation in flux. Breakneck traverses metropolises like Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen, where the engineering state has created not only dazzling infrastructure but also a sense of optimism. The book also exposes the downsides of social engineering, including the surveillance of ethnic minorities, political suppression, and the traumas of the one-child policy and zero-Covid.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kalorama
• Release date: Aug 26, 2025
• ISBN: 9781696620949

Reviews for Breakneck

[knightlight777 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book by Dan Wang covers the economic and political implications of present and future competition between China and the United States and it will shape the world to come. Everyday in the news we are well aware of how this affects us all good and bad.

Wang educated in the United States gives his perspective having lived in China and gone back after his family emigrated to Canada and later the United States. He takes us through a number of the provinces and how the Chinese live under a strangely Communist government that rules over a production based economy that competes vigorously on a world stage.

He describes the United States that had developed from a production oriented economy to a lawyeristic orientation that has gradually allowed us to fall behind in what was once our worldwide domain. He believes we can regain our position through a tempering of the far left and right political influences to focus on getting back to what made us great on our way up.