Breakneck — Why China's Engineers Beat America's Lawyers

Dan Wang's compelling and provocative book explores both the merits and the madness of China's engineering state.

- John Thornhill

In April 2022, during China's belated Covid-19 lockdown, airborne drones buzzed around Shanghai repeatedly blasting commands to hungry residents huddling in their apartments. "Repress your soul's yearning for freedom," a woman's voice ordered. "Do not open your windows to sing, which can spread the virus."

Such a scene may seem like something out of a dystopian science-fiction movie, but Shanghai's 25 million residents had already grown used to drones barking at them to mask up or return home. Little escape was to be had online either as ever-attentive censors quickly expunged all posts and videos from anti-lockdown protesters, who provocatively cited the first line of China's national anthem: "Arise, you who refuse to be slaves."

For Dan Wang, a Chinese-Canadian tech analyst who was living in Shanghai at the time, this striking fusion of technological prowess and social control encapsulates both the merits and the madness of China's engineering state. Those dynamics form the central theme of his compelling, provocative and highly personal book, providing a fresh perspective on the world's emerging superpower.

Now a research fellow at Stanford University, Wang established a reputation as one of the most astute China watchers during the six years he spent working in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. In Breakneck, he deftly mixes data-rich analysis with vivid personal anecdotes and punchy opinions. His book is both a fascinating exploration of China's strengths and weaknesses, as well as a searing critique of how a self-harming American leadership could lose the technological arms race to its rival.