Book Review:
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
by Dan Wang
August 26, 2025
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
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Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
A riveting, firsthand investigation of China’s seismic progress, its human costs, and what it means for America.
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 provocative 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.
In an era of animosity and mistrust, Wang unmasks the shocking similarities between the United States and China. Breakneck reveals how each country points toward a better path for the other: Chinese citizens would be better off if their government could learn to value individual liberties, while Americans would be better off if their government could learn to embrace engineering—and to produce better outcomes for the many, not just the few.
Indigo / Amazon |
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Reviews:
[A] brilliant book—equal parts gripping and depressing.—Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal
A landmark work. . . Wang’s writing is lucid, his insights are original, and his ability to bridge empirical observation with philosophical reflection makes this book essential reading for anyone concerned with the strategic implications of China’s rise.—Jean-Thomas Nicole, The Cipher Brief
If you want to know what is driving today's China or America, Chinese-Canadian analyst Dan Wang's new book is an indispensable guide. Wang shows that the world’s most urgent and challenging twenty-first-century task may be to forge a synthesis of the best of China and America, while avoiding the worst of each.—J. Bradford DeLong, Project Syndicate
An illuminating account of China’s dizzying rise and its deepening pathologies.—Chris Miller, author of Chip War
The best recent book on China, on China and America, and arguably the best book of the year flat out. It is marvelously written and brilliantly understands the dilemmas of our modern world.—Tyler Cowen
Dan Wang is able to illuminate China like no one else, and his annual letters have long been mandatory reading in Silicon Valley. Breakneck expands this analysis and delivers a simultaneously riveting and revelatory account of one of the most important topics of our time. —Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe
A must-read book on the intense competition between the United States and China for global leadership in the twenty-first century.—Julian Gewirtz, former White House Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs and author of Never Turn Back
A brilliant book about how China got ahead, how the United States stagnated, and the challenges that both will face in the future.—Odd Arne Westad, professor of history at Yale University and co-author of The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform
China outpaces and outproduces the United States in a growing number of high-tech fields. With his trademark mix of personal observation and objective analysis, Dan Wang explains not only what is happening, but why. The result is a tour de force essential for policymakers, academics, investors and entrepreneurs.
—Rush Doshi, assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University and C.V. Starr senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations |
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See also:
Breakneck as reviewed by Jean-Thomas Nicole for The Cipher Brief - August 26, 2025
Breakneck as reviewed by Elizabeth Economy for Foreign Affairs - November / December 2025
Breakneck as reviewed by Jeremy Williams for The Earthbound Report - August 22, 2025 |
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About the book:
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
by Dan Wang
W.W. Norton & Company - 275 pages $20.99 (Kindle)
Publication Date: August 26, 2025
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About the Author: Dan Wang
Dan Wang is a Canadian technology analyst and writer, specializing in contemporary China. Wang has been a visiting scholar at the Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Formerly the chief technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, a Shanghai-based economic research firm, and a fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, Wang lived in China during all three years of the country’s zero-Covid strategy. Being one of the few foreigners on the ground in China helped him to see the state’s logic while the rest of the world looked on in bafflement.
Wang was born in Yunnan, China. He was raised in Canada, where his family lived in both Ottawa and Toronto. As a teenager, he participated in the Royal Canadian Army Cadet program in Ottawa.
Wang later moved to the United States. He studied economics and philosophy at the University of Rochester, graduating in 2014
Wang has commented extensively on U.S.-China relations through the lens of technology, including semiconductor manufacturing and social media. In August 2025, his book Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future was released.
Biography Credit: Wikipedia & Global Speakers Bureau
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À propos du livre :
Breakneck : La quête de la Chine pour façonner l'avenir
par Dan Wang
W.W. Norton & Company - 275 pages 20,99 $ (Kindle)
Date de publication : 26 août 2025 |
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Disclaimer: Articles are chosen for relevance and circulated for information only. Views expressed are those of the respective journalists / authors. Republication does not infer endorsement.
Book Review Editor: Ralph Mahar - Suggestions for Book Reviews will be gratefully received at thepillarsociety.bulletins@gmail.com
Avertissement : Les articles sont choisis pour leur pertinence et sont diffusés à titre d'information seulement. Les opinions exprimées sont celles des journalistes/auteurs respectifs. La republication n'implique pas d'approbation.
Rédacteur en chef des critiques de livres : Ralph Mahar - Les suggestions de critiques de livres sont les bienvenues à l'adresse suivante : thepillarsociety.bulletins@gmail.com
