Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future

For nearly ten years, Dan Wang has closely followed China’s fast and dramatic rise. The country has built huge bridges, modern railways, and massive factories at incredible speed to grow its economy. But this rapid progress has also caused real hardship for many people.

China has grown so quickly partly by doing capitalism better than the United States, using the energy and drive of its large population. In this book, Wang combines real-world reporting with political and economic insight to explain China in a fresh and thought-provoking way—one that also helps us better understand America.

Wang explains that China focuses on building and engineering at scale, while the United States has become slowed down by rules, legal battles, and delays that make change difficult, whether good or bad.