The obsession with invention has clouded Silicon Valley’s ability to appreciate China’s actual strength. Rather than seeing tools and blueprints as the ultimate ends of technological progress, I believe we should

to drive on a highway system that surpassed the length of the US interstate system. By 2020, China had built a second batch of expressways that again totaled the length of the US system. The first expanse of highways took eighteen years to build; the second took half that time.

China’s political system is geared toward delivering monumental projects, such that the slightest economic tremble is enough to push Beijing to announce a mammoth plan for new

A rough rule of thumb is that China produces one-third to one-half of nearly any manufactured product, whether that is structural steel, container ships, solar photovoltaic panels, or anything else.

When he felt the scene to be too fantastic, the traveler braved the dismay of the nuns and abruptly departed.

Rather than redistribute resources from the rich to the poor, the state builds infrastructure in Guizhou.

which are regressive because they burden the poor more than the rich.

The Communist Party envisions itself as a grand master, coordinating unified actions across state and society, able to launch strategic maneuvers beyond the comprehension of its citizens. Its philosophy is to maximize the discretion of the state and minimize the rights of individuals.

trickster monkeys, but