Breakneck
China's Quest to Engineer the Future
Published on 26. August 2025
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-241-72917-5 (ISBN)
Description
The New York Times bestseller, Financial Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year
Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year
The book we need to understand China today: a riveting, first-hand account of its seismic progress from an indispensable expert voice
For close to a decade, Dan Wang has been observing China's tumultuous and astounding growth. The state has constructed towering bridges, gleaming railways and sprawling factories to improve economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout society.
China has grown so quickly in part by beating America at its own game: capitalism and harnessing the restless energy of a vast population. Here Wang blends political and economic analysis with reportage into a provocative new framework for understanding China - one that helps us see America more clearly, too. Whereas China is an engineering state, relentlessly building big, the United States has transformed into a lawyerly society, stalling every attempt to make change, both good and bad.
As relations between the US and China are tense and uncertain and the potential for dreadful conflict looms, Wang offers an inventive new way of thinking about the two superpowers. Breakneck reveals that each country points towards a better path for the other. How much better the world would be, he argues, if Americans could live in a society not only governed by lawyers, and Chinese citizens could live with a state that values their individual liberties.
'An illuminating account of China's dizzying rise and its deepening pathologies' Chris Miller
'One of the best books published on China this year' The Times
Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year
The book we need to understand China today: a riveting, first-hand account of its seismic progress from an indispensable expert voice
For close to a decade, Dan Wang has been observing China's tumultuous and astounding growth. The state has constructed towering bridges, gleaming railways and sprawling factories to improve economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout society.
China has grown so quickly in part by beating America at its own game: capitalism and harnessing the restless energy of a vast population. Here Wang blends political and economic analysis with reportage into a provocative new framework for understanding China - one that helps us see America more clearly, too. Whereas China is an engineering state, relentlessly building big, the United States has transformed into a lawyerly society, stalling every attempt to make change, both good and bad.
As relations between the US and China are tense and uncertain and the potential for dreadful conflict looms, Wang offers an inventive new way of thinking about the two superpowers. Breakneck reveals that each country points towards a better path for the other. How much better the world would be, he argues, if Americans could live in a society not only governed by lawyers, and Chinese citizens could live with a state that values their individual liberties.
'An illuminating account of China's dizzying rise and its deepening pathologies' Chris Miller
'One of the best books published on China this year' The Times
Reviews / Votes
A new theory of China's rise... Illuminating... The "engineering state" is a useful way to think about industrial competition between America and China * The Economist * A new lens for understanding the two superpowers... Wang brings curiosity, open-mindedness and intellectual rigour to this book, along with a sympathy and admiration for both China and the US * Irish Times * Dan Wang's compelling and provocative book explores both the merits and the madness of China's engineering state... Wang deftly mixes data-rich analysis with vivid personal anecdotes and punchy opinions -- John Thornhill * Financial Times * Easily one of the best books on China published this year... Wang has written that rare thing: a book on China that avoids the cliches and conventions of the genre and that is based on first-hand knowledge instead of impressions gleaned from reading English-language sources from abroad... policymakers in the UK would do well to ponder whether its message has any implication for this country * The Times * Urgent... It forces Americans to confront a lingering question: How did the U.S. lose its ability to build, and can it reclaim that capacity today? It's a book with China in the title, but America at its heart * NPR * An illuminating account of China's dizzying rise and its deepening pathologies -- Chris Miller, author of Chip War Dan Wang is an indispensable voice on China issues because he has the rarest combination of precious resources: deep knowledge and unflinching judgment. Half of his mind runs on philosophy, the other half runs on engineering. If Dan did not already exist, we would need to invent him for precisely this day and age -- Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition A brilliant book about how China got ahead, the United States stagnated, and the challenges that both will face in the future -- Odd Arne Westad, co-author of The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform 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 timely meditation on technology and governance -- and a rollicking read, to boot -- Eva Dou, author of House of HuaweiMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
484 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-72917-5 (9780241729175)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Dan Wang is a research fellow at the Hoover History Lab at Stanford University. He was previously a fellow at the Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center and the technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, working in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. Dan is the author of an annual letter from China and has published essays in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, New York Magazine and the Atlantic.