How China is ruled by engineers and America is run by lawyers

22/11/2025 24 min
How China is ruled by engineers and America is run by lawyers

Listen "How China is ruled by engineers and America is run by lawyers"

Episode Synopsis


China is an engineering state, obsessed with building megaprojects, while America is a lawyerly society, reflexively blocking everything, good and bad. That’s the framework for a new book by Dan Wang which explores the merits and madness of Beijing’s engineering state – and how it compares with Washington.Through personal insights from living in both countries, Dan Wang explores China’s strengths and weaknesses, and offers a critique of how American leadership could lose the technological arms race to its rival.

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