I recommend Dan’s book (https://danwang.co/breakneck/) to those wanting to better understand China - and the United States.

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libraryofbabel 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

One of the best books I read this year. I think a lot of HN readers will like it. A really balanced take on China that also digs deep into the perennial question of “why can’t we build big infrastructure projects in the US?” that comes up here quite often.

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veritascap 5 hours ago | parent [-]

We used to build those infrastructure projects.

	▲	libraryofbabel 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well of course, and the book digs a little into the history as well, and what changed around the 1960s/70s. There is a long section on Robert Moses, for example. He draws a lot of parallels between modern China and the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries - totally different political systems, but similar “breakneck” ability to build.

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decimalenough 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

+1, it's a great read.

It also defies easy summaries, but my biggest takeaways were that 1) the CCP really doesn't care about the costs any of its policies (one-child, zero COVID, etc) impose on its citizenry, and 2) that the CCP is actively preparing China for a world where it's entirely cut off from the West, because it realizes that's the price to pay for invading Taiwan.