The EI Podcast Dan Wang on China's quest to engineer the future
Nov 20, 2025
Dan Wang, a Research Fellow at the Hoover History Lab and author of "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future," shares insights into China's rise as a global power through engineering. He discusses how Xi Jinping's governance reflects a shift towards technical oversight and social engineering, drawing parallels with Stalin. Wang contrasts China’s manufacturing-led innovation with Silicon Valley’s approach. He also highlights the pressures of the intense 996 work culture and the trends of elite emigration, providing a nuanced perspective on U.S.-China rivalry.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Engineering State Over Political Labels
- China functions as an "engineering state" that treats society and the economy as systems to be designed and remolded.
- The Communist Party trains technocrats and pursues social and economic engineering from infrastructure to population control.
Scale Wins After Science Is De‑Risked
- China often lets U.S. and Western science de-risk technologies, then scales to own the industry via manufacturing.
- Owning entire supply chains yields greater economic and geopolitical value than originating basic research.
Process Knowledge Is The Real Tech Asset
- Technology equals tooling, written instructions, and crucially tacit process knowledge that can't be fully codified.
- China's deep manufacturing workforce accumulates process knowledge that sustains innovation and is hard to transfer overseas.
