‘Breakneck’ Review: Lawyers vs. Technocrats

Writing for these pages recently, Rahm Emanuel, a stalwart of the Democratic Party, asked if China could be the external threat that restores internal cohesion to American politics. It’s a good question, but Dan Wang asks an even better one in “Breakneck,” his brilliant book—equal parts gripping and depressing—about “China’s quest to engineer the future.” His question, distilled to its essence, is this: Can the success of China—with its dams and bridges, highways and high-speed rail networks, high-rise cities, world-altering factories and, increasingly, top-notch tech and military prowess—arouse or alarm America into rediscovering its soul and recovering the productive mojo...