647. China Is Run by Engineers. America Is Run by Lawyers.

Freakonomics Radio

In his new book “Breakneck,” Dan Wang argues that the U.S. has a lot to learn from China. He also says that “no two peoples are more alike.” We have questions.

• SOURCES:
  • Dan Wang, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future.

• RESOURCES:
  • Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, by Dan Wang (2025).
  • The Anaconda in the Chandelier: Writings on China, by Perry Link (2025).
  • "Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War?" by Dexter Filkins (The New Yorker, 2025).
  • "How smartphones made Shenzhen China’s innovation capital," by Dan Wang (2016).
  • How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, by Yuen Yuen Ang (2016).
  • The Art of Not Being Governed, by Jame Scott (2009).

• EXTRAS:
  • "The Engineering State and the Lawyerly Society: Dan Wang on his new book 'Breakneck,'" by the Sinica Podcast (2025).
  • "Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China?" by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

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