A Nation of Lawyers Confronts China’s Engineering State

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1. Dan Wang argues that China has become a technological superpower through its “engineering state” approach, demonstrating unprecedented industrial capability in global economic competition. Unlike the United States’ lawyer-dominated governance, China has systematically elevated engineers to political leadership and prioritized massive infrastructure and industrial development. China now dominates critical manufacturing sectors, producing 90 percent of rare-earth magnets and leading in everything from electronics to energy infrastructure. The United States has progressively lost its industrial capacity, with infrastructure projects becoming increasingly complex, expensive, and slow, while talented engineers are drawn away from national development. Wang ultimately proposes that a balanced approach combining America’s legal pluralism with China’s engineering culture could create a more innovative and productive future.

2. Definitely an interesting perspective but much of the world’s cutting edge research and advances still come from the US. Doesn’t mean all that much though if they rely on China for basic materials. Maybe Trump has a point about onshoring industry and diversifying the supply chain.

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