How China’s engineering mindset has shaped its modern infrastructure and society

Key Concepts

• Engineering State vs. Lawyerly Society: A framework to understand China's state-driven, project-oriented approach versus the US's more legalistic, deliberative, and potentially slower decision-making process.
• State Power and Infrastructure Projects: China's extensive use of large-scale infrastructure development (high-speed rail, bridges, factories) to reshape the country and demonstrate national ambition.
• Social Engineering: Government interventions aimed at shaping citizen behavior, exemplified by the one-child policy and the zero-COVID policy.
• Breakneck Pace and Trade-offs: China's rapid development comes with significant costs, including debt, environmental impact, and social disruption.
• Demographic Crisis: China's declining birth rate and the government's efforts to reverse it.
• Self-Sufficiency and Extreme Scenarios: China's focus on energy, food, and technological independence, potentially in preparation for global severance or conflict.
• US Defense Industrial Base: Concerns about the US's capacity to produce military hardware compared to China.

China's State-Driven Engineering and Social Transformation

For decades, China has employed dramatic displays of state power to reshape its nation. This has manifested in vast infrastructure projects that have transformed entire provinces and nationwide campaigns designed to influence citizen behavior. These sweeping measures reflect China's ambitions and have significant implications for the future of US-Chinese competition.

Infrastructure Development: Scale and Pace

China is undertaking infrastructure projects at an unprecedented scale and pace.

• Record-Breaking Bridges: The poor rural province of Guizhou now hosts nearly half of the world's 100 tallest bridges. The newest, tallest bridge in the world, which opened recently, reduced travel across a river from hours to minutes, according to state media. Its opening was celebrated with a water and light display and base jumping, highlighting its tourism appeal.
• Symbolic, Political, Economic, and Quality of Life Benefits: Andrew Murtha, Director of the China Global Research Center at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, notes that these projects serve multiple purposes, including symbolic, political, economic, and improving the quality of life for users.
• Transformative Change: Murtha emphasizes the difficulty for people in the US to grasp the magnitude of change brought about by China's infrastructure building over the past 30 years.
• Highway Network: In just a few decades, China has built highways twice the length of the entire US interstate highway system.
• High-Speed Rail: China's first high-speed rail line opened in 2008. Now, its high-speed rail network is 20 times more extensive than Japan's.
• Renewable Energy Capacity: China has built as much solar and wind power capacity as the rest of the world combined.

Social Engineering and Behavioral Control

The quest for efficiency extends beyond physical infrastructure to encompass social engineering.

• Zero COVID Policy: During the pandemic, China implemented one of the world's most restrictive COVID-19 lockdown policies. This system of surveillance, mass testing, and forced quarantine initially kept China's case numbers low. However, the response to the Omicron variant in 2022 led to sudden, prolonged lockdowns and draconian restrictions.
• One-Child Policy: Over four decades, China's one-child policy achieved its goal of reducing birth rates but resulted in enforcement actions that traumatized generations. Today, China faces a freefalling birth rate and is attempting to reverse it with a three-child policy.

Costs and Consequences of Rapid Development

While impressive, China's rapid development comes with significant costs.

• Debt Burden: Massive housing and infrastructure projects are saddled with enormous debt.
• Ghost Cities: Many projects are abandoned, leading to entire "ghost cities" – feats of engineering without inhabitants.

The "Engineering State" vs. The "Lawyerly Society" Framework

Dan Wang, a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and author of "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future," offers a framework to understand the contrasting approaches of China and the US.

China as an "Engineering State"

• Engineering Background of Leadership: Wang describes China as an "engineering state" because, at various points, all nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party's highest ruling body, held engineering degrees.
• Treating the Environment as an Engineering Project: The government views the physical environment as an engineering project, actively engineering the economy and society.
• "Move Fast and Break Things": This approach, often associated with tech companies, is applied by China to its development. Wang elaborates that China "moves fast and breaks things and moves fast and breaks people."
• Rapid Construction: Since 1980, China has built an average of one New York City plus one Boston area worth of housing every single year.
• Optimism and Excitement: New subway lines, parks, and bridges generate optimism and excitement about the future among the population.
• Social Engineering Costs: The one-child policy is described as a "campaign of rural terror" carried out against women. According to official statistics, over 35 years, China conducted approximately 300 million abortions, sterilized 100 million women, and sterilized 25 million men to reduce population. The irony is that China now faces a demographic crisis and desires more births.
• Society as a Math Exercise: Living in China can feel like society is treated as a math exercise, with people viewed as building materials to be manipulated.

The US as a "Lawyerly Society"

• Legal Background of Leaders: Wang characterizes the US as a "lawyerly society" because many aspiring presidents and members of Congress have law degrees (five of the last ten US presidents attended law school).
• Hindrance to Progress: The issue with a lawyerly approach, according to Wang, is that it can "block everything, good and bad." This prevents "stupid ideas" like the zero-COVID or one-child policies but also hinders functional infrastructure development, which Wang suggests is lacking almost anywhere in the US.

China's Preparations for Extreme Scenarios and Military Buildup

Xi Jinping has spoken about the need to plan for "extreme scenarios," which coincides with China's ramp-up in military production, significantly outpacing the US.

• Euphemisms and Obliquities: The Communist Party often uses euphemisms, making it unclear what "extreme scenarios" refer to.
• Severance from the World: This planning may involve preparing for a severance from the rest of the world.
• Energy and Food Security: China is focused on becoming more energy secure and addressing food security issues, with local provinces expected to produce the majority of their own food.
• Technological Self-Sufficiency: Xi is prioritizing pivoting away from foreign energy sources and achieving technological self-sufficiency.
• Naval Disparity: China has approximately 1,500 ships under construction, while the US has only 5. This disparity is attributed not only to China building extensively but also to the US building too little.
• US Defense Industrial Base Weaknesses: The US has struggled with manufacturing, particularly in its defense industrial base, including building ships, munitions, and drones. This could leave the US military outmatched in a serious conflict.

A Call for Balanced Strengths

Wang suggests that both superpowers could benefit from adopting some of the strengths of the other.

• US Adopting Engineering Strengths: The US could be "20% more engineering" by having more people build needed housing, fix mass transit systems, construct better public works, and improve its manufacturing base.
• China Adopting Lawyerly Strengths: China could be "50% more lawyerly" by respecting individual rights and fostering the creative impulses of its youth. Wang believes Chinese youth are creative and excel in digital content creation (memes, TikToks, Douyins). He urges the Communist Party to "learn to leave people alone."

The discussion is based on Dan Wang's book, "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future."

Conclusion

China's approach to development is characterized by a powerful, state-driven "engineering" mindset, evident in its massive infrastructure projects and social engineering campaigns. While this has led to rapid transformation and impressive achievements, it has also incurred significant costs, including debt, environmental impact, and social disruption. The US, conversely, operates as a "lawyerly society," which, while preventing drastic policy errors, can also lead to slower progress and infrastructure deficiencies. Both nations face unique challenges and could potentially benefit from adopting some of the strengths of the other to navigate future competition and global dynamics.