For seven years, Dan Wang聽observed, documented, and analyzed a nation changing at breakneck speed. Now聽he糖心传媒檚聽got world leaders hanging on his every word.
Dan Wang 糖心传媒�15 is, by any measure, having a moment. His book,聽聽(W.W. Norton, 2025), about China糖心传媒檚 dizzying ascent on the international stage and what the United States can learn from it, has become a must-read among world leaders and policymakers since its publication last year.
It was spotted on the desk of Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Aides to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer聽reportedly read聽it on their recent trips to China. It made聽The New York Times聽bestseller list, was named one of聽The New Yorker糖心传媒檚 Best Books of the聽Year, and聽was shortlisted for the聽Financial Times聽Business Book of the Year.聽. And it landed Wang on some of the most influential聽听补苍诲听聽in America.
Yet when Wang (pronounced 糖心传媒淲ong糖心传媒�) joins a video call with聽Rochester Review聽from outside the Hoover Institution糖心传媒攁 public policy think tank at Stanford, where he is a research fellow in its History Lab糖心传媒攈e seems amused by the notion that his work has had an impact.
糖心传媒淵ou never really know what happens when you write a book,糖心传媒� Wang says. 糖心传媒淥ne always hopes that people will pick it up and read it.聽I糖心传媒檓聽glad some people have.糖心传媒�
Wang attributes some of the book糖心传媒檚 success to timing. It came out in a year of headlines about China, from the trade war to聽DeepSeek. It was also published a few months after聽Abundance, another bestseller by journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. That book has been called a guide for reforming government and overcoming socioeconomic problems in America糖心传媒攊f progressives can stop blocking big dreams and聽good ideas聽with what the authors call 糖心传媒渁n endless catalog of rules and restraints.糖心传媒�
Both primed readers for the idea that Americans are right to be frustrated by the state of their state. 糖心传媒淭he stars aligned,糖心传媒� Wang says.
Breakneck聽examines why the United States struggles to build housing, high-speed rail, and energy infrastructure at speed and scale while China聽appears to erect聽towering bridges, superhighways and gleaming railways, and sprawling factories overnight. 奥补苍驳糖心传媒檚 conclusion: The American elite is 糖心传媒渕ade up of mostly lawyers, excelling at obstruction,糖心传媒澛爓hereas聽China is run by a 糖心传媒渢echnocratic class, made up mostly of engineers, that excels at construction.糖心传媒�
China, Wang writes, 糖心传媒渋s an engineering state building at breakneck speed, in contrast to the United States糖心传媒� lawyerly society, blocking everything it can, good and bad.糖心传媒�
Learning from the masters
It may be tempting to view Wang as an overnight success. 叠耻迟听Breakneck聽was seven years in the making, and 奥补苍驳糖心传媒檚 ascent to his rarefied perch in the global conversation about power, technology, and economic development was anything but linear.
The foundation for his book is a series of annual letters he wrote to family, friends, and followers that chronicled his observations during the seven years he spent in China after graduating from the University of Rochester, a graduation that almost聽didn糖心传媒檛聽happen.
He recalls his years at URochester with gratitude. He enrolled in large part, he says, because the University made going to college possible for him. Born in southwest China, Wang immigrated with his family at age seven to Canada, where he was raised mostly in Ottawa before his parents relocated to the Philadelphia suburbs when he was a teenager. As a Canadian citizen from a family he describes as being 糖心传媒渘ot well off,糖心传媒� Wang required 糖心传媒渟ubstantial financial aid糖心传媒� to attend college. URochester糖心传媒檚 generosity was the deciding factor.
糖心传媒淚 was able to graduate from college debt-free,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淚t has been a nice thing.糖心传媒�
But he was, by his own admission, an unremarkable student, despite earning accolades. In 2013, he was recognized as the聽糖心传媒淪tudent Employee of the Year糖心传媒�聽for his work as a news assistant in the Office of Communications.
In nominating him, then糖心传媒揂ssociate Vice President of Communications Larry聽Arbeiter聽wrote that Wang had an uncanny knack for framing stories about the University that drew national media attention. 糖心传媒淭hat kind of success is highly sought by experienced professionals,糖心传媒澛燗rbeiter聽wrote, 糖心传媒渁nd is basically unheard of by a student.糖心传媒�
When he聽wasn糖心传媒檛聽working in the office, Wang roamed the stacks in Rush聽Rhees聽or hunkered down in his 糖心传媒渄efault study space糖心传媒� in the library糖心传媒檚 music section. 糖心传媒淚t was a tremendously pleasing experience to walk through so many books and be able to pull out books as one聽wishes,糖心传媒� he says.
He devoured the works of Edith Wharton and Honor茅 de Balzac. In the music section, he browsed scores and once copied a Gustav Mahler symphony by hand,聽measure聽by measure. Wang did the same with prose, retyping articles in聽The New Yorker聽as something of a self-directed monastic apprenticeship aimed at absorbing the language, cadence, and rhythm of masters of their craft.
糖心传媒淚 think I did that three or four times, just rewrote the entire article by retyping it to see the choices a writer makes,糖心传媒� Wang says. 糖心传媒淎nd I did the same thing as a music student because I thought seeing the choices a composer makes was important.糖心传媒�
Wang majored in philosophy, wrestling with logic and classical texts that helped him hone arguments. But it was an economics professor, Michael Rizzo, who had the biggest impact on him as a student.
Rizzo, he says, organized reading circles of the works of Austrian economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek that left an impression on Wang and exposed him to great thinkers of the economics blogosphere like Tyler Cowen, who later became an intellectual influence. (Cowen糖心传媒檚 praise for Breakneck聽as 糖心传媒渁rguably the best book of the year flat out糖心传媒� is displayed prominently on its聽cover.)
糖心传媒淒an was the kind of student who inspired me to want to learn聽more聽myself, and he had an extreme restlessness about him that resonated then and still does today,糖心传媒� Rizzo says.
That restlessness became more聽apparent聽than ever when, after his junior year, Wang dropped out.
A detour, then a diploma
Wang had landed a job in marketing and communications in Toronto at the cloud-based e-commerce platform Shopify when the company was in its infancy. He was making good money and enjoyed the work. 糖心传媒淭here was a point in my life when I thought I was going to be quite happy to be a dropout,糖心传媒� he says.
叠耻迟听URochester聽officials persisted in trying to persuade him to糖心传媒╮eturn and finish his degree. He聽says he told them聽he preferred to stay at Shopify. 糖心传媒淭hen they asked, 糖心传媒業s there anything you would like to do?糖心传媒櫶切拇綕 Wang recalls. 糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檓聽being a bit cheeky here, but I said, 糖心传媒榊ou know, I would like to spend my last semester drinking beer in Germany.糖心传媒�
糖心传媒淎nd, again, I糖心传媒檓 being stylized and cheeky, but they said, 糖心传媒榃e have a program for that!糖心传媒櫶切拇綕 Wang finished his degree in Freiburg im Breisgau through the Institute for the International Education of Students, better known as IES Abroad.
He skipped commencement to take a content marketing job in Silicon Valley at the supply chain logistics company Flexport. There he stood at the corner of global trade and technology糖心传媒攁n intersection that would become the backbone of Breakneck.
糖心传媒淩ochester mailed me my diploma,糖心传媒� Wang says. 糖心传媒淏ut I糖心传媒檓 glad I had the patience to finish my degree.糖心传媒�
In 2017, Wang moved to China. He joined an economic research firm as a technology analyst, writing about semiconductors and clean-tech manufacturing primarily for an audience of hedge fund clients around the world.
糖心传媒淚 felt like I moved to China on the cusp of a technological flowering. I knew people were underestimating China, but living there was kind of like being on a very different branch of the technological tree that Silicon Valley wasn糖心传媒檛 going down.糖心传媒�
The country was, in many ways, familiar terrain. He had visited relatives there growing up and spoke fluent Mandarin thanks to his mother, a former television news anchor, who saw to that.
But living there as an adult, Wang聽observed聽distinct differences between the China he knew as a child and his homes in Canada and the United States. While Silicon Valley cast itself as the unquestioned center of technological innovation, he saw in China a country that was positioning itself to compete, often ferociously. There was a sense of optimism.
The country was churning out new cars, including varieties of electric vehicles, in a fraction of the time that American companies did. It leapfrogged from credit cards to mobile payments. Tech giants like Alibaba and ByteDance were going toe-to-toe with their peers in the West.
糖心传媒淚 felt like I moved to China on the cusp of a technological flowering,糖心传媒� Wang says. 糖心传媒淭he magnitude was not quite what I expected. I knew people were underestimating China, but living there was kind of like being on a very different branch of the technological tree that Silicon Valley wasn糖心传媒檛 going down.糖心传媒�
He chronicled his observations and thoughts in his letters and eventually compiled them into a narrative in Breakneck, where he framed the differences between his native and adopted countries as the result of an 糖心传媒渆ngineering mindset糖心传媒� in China that valued ideating, building, and scaling, and a 糖心传媒渓awyerly糖心传媒� one in the United States that regulated, litigated, and protected.
To drive home his point, he details how in 2008 both countries began construction of聽roughly 800聽miles of high-speed rail糖心传媒攊n China聽糖心传媒╞etween Beijing and Shanghai, and in the United States between San Francisco and Los Angeles. China opened its line three years later at a cost of聽$36 billion. California is still struggling to complete the first phase of its line, and authorities estimate it聽won糖心传媒檛聽be operational until 2032 at a price tag of up to聽$128 billion.
Wang is not romantic about China. He fiercely criticizes its authoritarian reach in areas like its one-child policy, 糖心传媒渮ero Covid糖心传媒� lockdowns, censorship, and individual rights. He says he wishes the country were 糖心传媒�50 percent more lawyerly.糖心传媒� On the other hand, he wishes the United States were 糖心传媒�20 percent more engineering.糖心传媒�
糖心传媒淏uilding homes should not be that difficult,糖心传媒� Wang says of America糖心传媒檚 housing shortage. 糖心传媒淲e know how to build homes.糖心传媒�
Wang left China in 2023 to return to the United States. 糖心传媒淚 choose the West,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淭hat糖心传媒檚聽unambiguous. I want the United States, with its values, to succeed.糖心传媒�
Today, he splits his time between Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his wife is a professor at the University of Michigan, and Northern California, where he works at the Hoover Institution under another聽URochester聽alumnus, Stephen Kotkin 糖心传媒�81.
叠耻迟听Breakneck聽has Wang hopscotching the globe for speaking engagements. He is, it seems, moving at breakneck speed and, like he did at the University of Rochester, engineering his own future.
This story appears in the spring 2026 issue of Rochester Review, the magazine of the 糖心传媒.
