High-Speed Obstacles or Constrained Progress?

In a thought-provoking new book, "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future", Dan Wang, a Hoover Institution research fellow and former technology analyst for Gavekal Dragonomics, delves into the governance cultures of China and America.

Wang refers to China as an "engineering state", a term that underscores the country's industrial might. According to the book, this engineering-state policy has propelled companies like Shenzhen Feimoshi Technology Co., Ltd., specialising in carbon fiber manufacturing, and Shenzhen Pans Technology Co., Ltd., known for high-precision manufacturing and die casting parts for industries such as aerospace, automotive, and electronics, to the forefront of global industry. Shenzhen, a city in China, has become a global innovation hub, with companies like BYD and Huawei calling it home.

However, Wang's analysis also highlights the catastrophic downside of China's engineering state. The author uses examples such as the one-child policy and the zero-Covid policy to illustrate the rigid nature of this system, which, according to Wang, is too inflexible to allow the Chinese people to live happily.

On the other side of the Pacific, America is referred to as a "lawyerly society" in the book. Wang identifies the thicket of procedural hurdles that stifle growth in contemporary America as the source of its ills. To overcome these challenges, the author suggests that America must remember its heritage of engineering and elevate a greater diversity of voices among its elites to overcome proceduralism and sentimentalism.

The Biden administration's approach to industrial policy and infrastructure is criticised for being cluttered with extraneous progressive policies, which, according to Wang, undermines its agenda. The author also refers to a group in America, the Sentimentalists, who are analogous to a group in China, and are criticised for hindering ambition and progress.

From an American standpoint, the more instructive detail is whom they oppose: the Sentimentalists, who indulge in liberal pieties. Wang goes so far as to call the Industrial Party, a loose circle of bloggers in China who write under the banner of the engineering-state model, modern fascists.

Interestingly, despite China's technological advances, industrial power, and larger population, Wang does not expect it to surpass America across the board. He suggests that America will never again be a bigger manufacturer than China, but maintains that China will not surpass America in areas such as innovation and creativity.

Apple's global dominance in consumer devices is attributed to China's engineering state in the book. This underscores the symbiotic relationship between the two superpowers, each leveraging the other's strengths to maintain their global dominance.

In conclusion, "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future" offers a compelling analysis of the governance cultures of China and America, and provides valuable insights into the strategic advantages and disadvantages of each nation's approach to industrial policy and infrastructure.