Something about the United States is broken. Our already mediocre infrastructure is crumbling, the pace of housing construction is glacial, and we’re one of the few advanced countries without high-speed rail. Although Bidenomics — the set of economic policies aiming to both address inequality and reindustrialize America’s economy — made progress, its deficiencies also revealed deep dysfunction. The Biden administration fell flat on its face at the relatively simple tasks of expanding internet access and installing more electric vehicle charging stations. Meanwhile, Republican states employed lawfare in a cynical attempt to stop the green transition that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tried to kick into gear.

For the last few decades, China has been on the exact opposite trajectory to the United States. The People’s Republic puts up highways, bridges, and trains at a whirlwind pace. It is now the global leader in manufacturing, and there are few products that it can’t create. It’s moved up the value chain from making T-shirts and toys to high-tech products like electric vehicles (EVs) and solar panels. China’s stupendous installations of solar, wind, and nuclear power makes the IRA look pathetic in comparison. In short, China’s historic productivity has been the complete inverse of America’s malaise.

Dan Wang’s new book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, sets out to offer a new framework for explaining this disparity. For Wang, China is an “engineering state” while the United States is a “lawyerly society.” The engineering state “builds big at breakneck speeds,” putting up railways, bridges, and factories at a speed that no other country can match. In contrast, America’s lawyerly society is all about obstructing construction and creating dizzyingly obtuse procedures that thwart all change, both good and bad. In addition, the lawyerly society tends to be best at serving the rich, who are best equipped to navigate the labyrinth of legalistic confusion.