Breakneck

“ Americans live today in the ruins of an industrial civilization, whose infrastructure is just barely maintained and rarely expanded.

“ Americans live today in the ruins of an industrial civilization, whose infrastructure is just barely maintained and rarely expanded. ” e.style.display='none');if(typeof getContentsSections==='function')setTimeout(getContentsSections,50)" /> Wang's thesis splits the superpowers by who runs them. By 2002, all nine members of China's Politburo standing committee had trained as engineers — in hydraulic, thermal, and electron-tube engineering. Xi Jinping studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua. In contrast, five of the last ten US presidents attended law school, and at least half of Congress holds law degrees. America has 400 lawyers per 100,000 people — triple the European average. The consequences are physical. Since 1980, China built highways equaling twice the US system's length, a high-speed rail network twenty times Japan's, and nearly as much solar and wind capacity as the rest of the world combined. New York's express train to New Haven takes the same two hours it did in 1915. TAKEAWAY 2

“ Call it propaganda of the deed, but one way to impress a billion-plus people is to pour a lot of concrete. ” e.style.display='none');if(typeof getContentsSections==='function')setTimeout(getContentsSections,50)" /> Guizhou's transformation defies belief. This mountainous province has per-capita income of $8,000 — comparable to Botswana, one-fifteenth of New York State's. Yet it has 45 of the world's 100 highest bridges, 11 airports, 5,000 miles of expressways, and functional high-speed rail. Wang cycled nearly 400 miles through Guizhou and found infrastructure that America's richest states can't match. Building is how the engineering state redistributes. Rather than welfare transfers (China spends just 10% of GDP on social programs versus 20% in the US), it pours concrete. Locals point to bridges with genuine pride. The debt underneath is enormous — Guizhou is among China's most indebted provinces — but the roads and rail create real convenience for rural people who remember having none of it. TAKEAWAY 3

“ Silicon Valley used to be like this too, but now it lacks a critical link in the chain — the manufacturing workforce. ” e.style.display='none');if(typeof getContentsSections==='function')setTimeout(getContentsSections,50)" /> Wang redefines technology into three layers: tools (pots, ovens), explicit instruction (recipes, blueprints), and process knowledge — the proficiency gained from practical experience that can't be written down. The third matters most. Japan's Ise Jingu shrine has been completely rebuilt every twenty years since 690 AD to preserve construction craft across generations. The US, by contrast, spent $69 million relearning how to produce "Fogbank," a classified nuclear material, after everyone who knew the process retired. Process knowledge explains manufacturing decline. When the US opened factories in China, it didn't just ship jobs — it transferred irreplaceable tacit knowledge. Chinese workers who assembled iPhones…