For seven years, Dan Wang聽observed, documented, and analyzed a nation changing at breakneck speed. Now聽he鈥檚聽got world leaders hanging on his every word.
Dan Wang 鈥�15 is, by any measure, having a moment. His book,聽聽(W.W. Norton, 2025), about China鈥檚 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鈥檚 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 鈥淲ong鈥�) joins a video call with聽Rochester Review聽from outside the Hoover Institution鈥攁 public policy think tank at Stanford, where he is a research fellow in its History Lab鈥攈e seems amused by the notion that his work has had an impact.
鈥淵ou never really know what happens when you write a book,鈥� Wang says. 鈥淥ne always hopes that people will pick it up and read it.聽I鈥檓聽glad some people have.鈥�
Wang attributes some of the book鈥檚 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鈥攊f progressives can stop blocking big dreams and聽good ideas聽with what the authors call 鈥渁n endless catalog of rules and restraints.鈥�
Both primed readers for the idea that Americans are right to be frustrated by the state of their state. 鈥淭he stars aligned,鈥� 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. 奥补苍驳鈥檚 conclusion: The American elite is 鈥渕ade up of mostly lawyers, excelling at obstruction,鈥澛爓hereas聽China is run by a 鈥渢echnocratic class, made up mostly of engineers, that excels at construction.鈥�
China, Wang writes, 鈥渋s an engineering state building at breakneck speed, in contrast to the United States鈥� lawyerly society, blocking everything it can, good and bad.鈥�
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 奥补苍驳鈥檚 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 URochester, a graduation that almost聽didn鈥檛聽happen.
He recalls his years at 蘑菇传媒 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 鈥渘ot well off,鈥� Wang required 鈥渟ubstantial financial aid鈥� to attend college. 蘑菇传媒鈥檚 generosity was the deciding factor.
鈥淚 was able to graduate from college debt-free,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t has been a nice thing.鈥�
But he was, by his own admission, an unremarkable student, despite earning accolades. In 2013, he was recognized as the聽鈥淪tudent Employee of the Year鈥�聽for his work as a news assistant in the Office of Communications.
In nominating him, then鈥揂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. 鈥淭hat kind of success is highly sought by experienced professionals,鈥澛燗rbeiter聽wrote, 鈥渁nd is basically unheard of by a student.鈥�
When he聽wasn鈥檛聽working in the office, Wang roamed the stacks in Rush聽Rhees聽or hunkered down in his 鈥渄efault study space鈥� in the library鈥檚 music section. 鈥淚t was a tremendously pleasing experience to walk through so many books and be able to pull out books as one聽wishes,鈥� 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.
鈥淚 think I did that three or four times, just rewrote the entire article by retyping it to see the choices a writer makes,鈥� Wang says. 鈥淎nd I did the same thing as a music student because I thought seeing the choices a composer makes was important.鈥�
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鈥檚 praise for Breakneck聽as 鈥渁rguably the best book of the year flat out鈥� is displayed prominently on its聽cover.)
鈥淒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,鈥� 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. 鈥淭here was a point in my life when I thought I was going to be quite happy to be a dropout,鈥� he says.
叠耻迟听蘑菇传媒聽officials persisted in trying to persuade him to鈥╮eturn and finish his degree. He聽says he told them聽he preferred to stay at Shopify. 鈥淭hen they asked, 鈥業s there anything you would like to do?鈥欌�� Wang recalls. 鈥淚鈥檓聽being a bit cheeky here, but I said, 鈥榊ou know, I would like to spend my last semester drinking beer in Germany.鈥�
鈥淎nd, again, I鈥檓 being stylized and cheeky, but they said, 鈥榃e have a program for that!鈥欌�� 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鈥攁n intersection that would become the backbone of Breakneck.
鈥淩ochester mailed me my diploma,鈥� Wang says. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 glad I had the patience to finish my degree.鈥�
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.
鈥淚 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鈥檛 going down.鈥�
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.
鈥淚 felt like I moved to China on the cusp of a technological flowering,鈥� Wang says. 鈥淭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鈥檛 going down.鈥�
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 鈥渆ngineering mindset鈥� in China that valued ideating, building, and scaling, and a 鈥渓awyerly鈥� 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鈥攊n China聽鈥╞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鈥檛聽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, 鈥渮ero Covid鈥� lockdowns, censorship, and individual rights. He says he wishes the country were 鈥�50 percent more lawyerly.鈥� On the other hand, he wishes the United States were 鈥�20 percent more engineering.鈥�
鈥淏uilding homes should not be that difficult,鈥� Wang says of America鈥檚 housing shortage. 鈥淲e know how to build homes.鈥�
Wang left China in 2023 to return to the United States. 鈥淚 choose the West,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚聽unambiguous. I want the United States, with its values, to succeed.鈥�
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聽蘑菇传媒聽alumnus, Stephen Kotkin 鈥�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 URochester, engineering his own future.
This story appears in the spring 2026 issue of Rochester Review, the magazine of the 蘑菇传媒.
