Trump and Xi met, and there was the usual avalanche of headlines about US-China rivalry: can the world’s two largest powers manage their competition responsibly, or are they destined to tumble into the so-called “Thucydides Trap” – where a rising power inevitably collides with an established one? Yet, the relationship between Washington and Beijing is far more layered. Beneath diplomatic theatrics lies a deeper civilisational contrast – in how the two nations think, govern and build.
In Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future , Dan Wang offers an elegantly simple argument to understand this divide – China is run by engineers, while America is run by lawyers. One side is obsessed with building, the other with regulating. China sees every challenge as a construction problem waiting to be solved with more factories, railways , housing and infrastructure. US, meanwhile, instinctively approaches problems through rules, litigation, oversight, and compliance.
