Breakneck

China's Quest to Engineer the Future

De: Dan Wang

Narrado por: Jonathan Yen

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 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.

©2025 Daniel Wang (P)2025 Tantor Media

refreshing apt and insightful

breakneck is an excellent book written, I think, with a lot of insights about both the US and China that probably everyone in the world in private sector or in government would benefit from at the very least. thinking about. there is a wonderful candidness and genuineness of phrasing in the book. this is not a book of cliches and recycled headlines. this is a great book!

thoughts on Breakneck

balance, lack of one-sided political views. good comparison and contrast between two very different approaches to governance

Very comprehensive

Was much more than I expected; I just wish there had been more about the belt and road initiative and its affects on developing countries

BREAKNECK

Good book, but in the end it seemed to be more about the author than the United States and China. But, it was still all relevant to the story.

Great comparative book

This was a very good broad look at the US and China and the similarities and differences between them. I think books that try to make broad statements like this tend to be too speculative but this seems very coherent and helps me look at China through the lens of Abundance which is interesting.

For goodness’ sake, get a native speaker

For a book primarily about China, the least that you could do is get a narrator that can pronounce Chinese names. I can forgive a “SHEE Gin Ping” or “Shaeng-hai” if it appears once or twice in a book. But when Chinese words appear in every other sentence it’s just so painful to listen to!! In later chapters there are also lots of names, and even a few idioms and short quotes that just get so mangled…

I bought this book because I heard Dan Wang talk about it on a Freakonomics podcast, and I was impressed by his care and attention to detail, obviously speaking the language, reading the primary source documents like party speeches…
all of that magic is broken when the narration is punctuated by Americanized pronunciation.


Onto the content itself; I felt it was insightful and equally balanced (both praise and criticism of both the US and China in equal measure). I certainly learnt a lot about global geopolitics and economics.
if anything though, it got a bit repetitive towards the end, and I felt that there might even have been several sentences that may even have been repeated verbatim later on in the book. this could’ve been fixed with more editing.

Great insights into China and US

Listened to this on first day out. Very insightful author on China today. The one child and Covid chapters were pretty disturbing. I liked the engineer vs lawyer thesis explaining differences between China and US today. Would recommend to anyone interested in China and or US development.

Timeless and timely

Like Wang’s annual letters, this whole book is both a musing, a study, a timeless view of two civilization more similar than they want to admit to themselves, and a timely anchoring in recent geopolitical events.

Modern-Day Marco Polo

what a fun and pleasant read! great storytelling! great performance! and great lessons! like listening to Marco Polo recount his fabulous tales. i was enthralled from beginning to end…

Phenomenal listen

This was one of the best books I’ve listened to this year so far. Must listen to in order to get a better view into both china and us