China emphasizes strategic patience and long-term stability, betting on outlasting Western competitors rather than seeking immediate confrontation. State-directed industrial policy focuses on technological self-reliance, engineering capabilities, and large-scale infrastructure projects. Urban development manifests in rapid subway expansion, massive park construction, and prominent skyscrapers that enhance everyday life even amid strict COVID border controls. Political and economic planning prioritize continuity and domestic capability-building to sustain global influence. Observers note that democratic countries can study elements of China's organizational and industrial strengths while maintaining innovation, open markets, and institutional resilience.
Our biggest adversary is waiting for the West to collapse. The game goes to he who outlasts the adversary, and what the Chinese want to do is to just keep things really, really stable and just wait for the Western countries to collapse. Just how powerful has China really become? What does China's leadership really want? If America is in a new Cold War, who's going to win?
My guest today thinks that the U.S. has a lot to learn from Chinese success, if we want to remain the world's leading power. Dan Wang is a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and the author of the new book, Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future. Dan Wang, welcome to Interesting Times. Thank you for having me, Ross. You're very welcome. Thank you for being here.
Here's a vision from 2021. In the summer of 2021, China had closed off its borders to COVID. When I was living in China's richest city, Shanghai, my life was full of ease and full of beauty. You are never very far away from a subway station that are constantly expanding their subway stations. Shanghai had about 500 parks in 2020, and at the end of this year, in 2025, the city government declared that it will have about 1,000 parks.
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