Dan Wang, Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future (Book Review)

By jgn on Tuesday, November 25, 2025 in Reading, Reviews, and Technology

I'll leave the serious reviews to the serious reviewers, but I will say that this is a good read and pretty fun. Basically the author draws a contrast between China, the Engineering State, and the United States, the state of lawyers. But the meat of the book is a withering critique of Xi's China.

Perhaps the best chapter is one on the author's experience during the COVID lockdowns in Beijing, Shanghai, and elsewhere. Shudder. Of course we screwed it up in the US, but China really messed things of with its technological absolutism.

Regarding the US, the book has an argument similar to Abundance, but in a lot of ways is sharper and easier to understand. Why can't we build at a reasonable price? Wang says that we need to society that supports building with less red tape. I'm not sure how this could be accomplished, but he seems right that the United States will only be in decline without building a lot more -- at least more affordable housing.

Originally reviewed on Goodreads on 25 November 2025.