Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future

by Dan Wang

The United States used to be, like China, an engineering state. But

???? Whole premise has been that us has always had lawyer engineers

As the United States lost its enthusiasm for engineers,

Software and computer engineers? Musk?

regulatory

How is this not lawyerly?

Engineers go hard in one direction, and if they perceive something isn’t working, they switch

Is that what makes n engineer? I wonder if engineers would agree.

problems of the 1960s.

When did the lawyerly society start?

judicial proceedings.

Hmm Unikely givem that its the ccdo.

“Made in Japan” flipped from shoddy to valuable.

Great comparison. Is japan a nationof engineers?

They celebrate the moment of invention: the first solar cell, the first personal computer, first in flight. In China, on the other hand, tech innovation emerges from the factory floor,

Ford Edison Besos?

Chinese builders have embraced transience to ensure the eternity of spiritual designs.

Like tofu construction buildings

it is an indictment of the American

Not law but financing is the problem then?

That is what the engineering state is about. It likes to build not just public works but also manufacturing capacity.

Weak reconnextion to nominal thesis disguising actual thesis of this chapter

Few other scientists have had their arguments embraced by China’s top leaders.

Are we distinguishing engineers from scientists? That's fine, but book is inconsistent as to which camp is more likely to embrace "Science" and whether that is good or bad?

The one-child policy could only have been formulated by the engineering state.

And yet the US lawyerly society brought Eugenics?

Foreigners in Beijing or Shanghai may still

So much time until on expat perceptions

Dalifornia.

???

the state hasn’t treated its ethnic populations

Circular

Good luck to anyone attempting to go to a courthouse to file a suit.

Why is this a glimpse of the lawyerly society?

mRNA vaccines that China could not.

Why couldnt the engineering state do this? The relationship between science and engineering isn't making much sense, probably because every society contains all of these fields.

cost 1.8 percent of China’s GDP in 2022.) When

And the corruption in the testing industry was rampant.

neighborhood committees that took a starring role in enforcing Covid lockdowns haven’t been disbanded;

They have existed since 1949

“We sincerely thank the relevant authorities for their inspection and guidance.”

This has aged badly on trump2

That is one of the defining characteristics of the engineering state.

Defined

After the pandemic, Xi has doubled down on self-reliance.

As has every country post pandic.

Aging autocrats easily get cranky, which is a problem since Xi is likely to

since the app doesn’t often serve Chinese content overseas.

An enormous amount of content on US short media platforms originates in China-- particularly pet and funny clips that require little language.

China.

But food martial arts etc pLus general awareness

suppressed their creativity.

Dumb. Creative products don't equal creativity.

and many in American universities are Chinese nationals likely to repatriate.

seemed to have been driven by the vagaries of investors rather than the interests of the state.

Furthermore, the state is deploying AI, but more for the purposes of censorship, facial

Source. Those are topics reported on heavily in the West, but you'd have to be kidding to believe that the use of AI isn't much more in research and logistics.

it taught Americans to fear and loathe engineers.

What?