Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This scholarly work is both a historical review (up to the present) and an opinion piece comparing and contrasting the PRC and US, primarily from an engineering, business, and economic perspective. Wang is a Canadian of Chinese origin and has lived and worked in Canada, China, and the United States, so he writes from personal experience. As a lawyer I largely agree with the author’s characterization of the U.S. as burdened by process, which is a small issue in the autocratic Chinese regime. His observations, while on point, at times overlook important societal factors. The takings clause of the U.S. Constitution (Fifth Amendment), for example: “…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” I skipped a little toward the end and may have missed something, but I don’t believe this was ever mentioned in the book. It is fundamental to his premise. America, and especially Americans, take personal rights seriously. I worked for a public agency in San Jose in the field of eminent domain takings of private property for transit purposes. The laws protecting owners and lessees are not only seriously unbalanced to the detriment of the government, but the process is even more onerous, i.e., expensive, than Wang describes. It’s amazing that any new infrastructure gets built anywhere in the U.S., especially in the Bay Area or other astronomically expensive areas.
He ridicules the transit failures of the Bay Area. While he’s not wrong, he fails to note the striking differences in the Bay Area from other big cities in the US or even China: a huge metro area with no central business district, only three major population centers distanced about 50 miles from each other with an enormous body of deep water in between. The high water table and active earthquake faults make subways nearly impossible in the South Bay, the heart of Silicon Valley. The high-speed rail project of the Central Valley is burdened by the same geographic and constitutional obstacles. In a way, the U.S. and especially California is a victim of its own success. It is so desirable to live here, for many reasons, that the land is very expensive which in turn, combined with the takings clause, make such projects nearly unobtainable. Wang himself admits that despite the impressive infrastructure achievements China has made, many Chinese, including he and his parents, have chosen the land of personal rights and crumbling bridges right here in North America to live. Some things are just not reconcilable. We all have to prioritize.