Second Short Quiz – Intro + Chapters 1-3

[johnkarls]

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1. Does Dan Wang mention in the second page of his Intro (p. x) that he is “a Canadian who has spent almost equal amounts of time living in the United States and China”???

2. Despite being a Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover History Lab after serving as a Fellow at the Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center and, before that, covering technology at Gavekal Dragonomics (a financial services company headquartered in Hong Kong whose main business activities include financial research and investment management services) – is his only academic degree a B.A. in economics and philosophy from the University of Rochester in 2014???

3. Added to his career interest in politics, doesn’t his concentration in PP&E (politics, philosophy and economics) mirror the B.A. degrees in PP&E from Oxford that most British Prime Ministers since Churchill have on their resumes as their sole academic degrees???

4. And isn’t it a testament to Dan Wang’s impressive list of publications since 2014 that Stanford U and Yale Law School are willing to overlook the lack of a PhD which academic snobs view as a “license to think”???

5. Does Dan Wang’s Intro contain amazing insights into the nature and reasons for present-day Chinese-American relations???


*****
Chapter 1 – Engineers vs. Lawyers

6. Did Deng Xiaoping (Supreme Leader of China 1978-1989 following the death of Mao), begin the tradition of promoting only engineers to the top ranks of China’s government???

7. By 2002, did President Hu Jintao and all nine members of the Politburo’s standing committee have engineering degrees???

8. Is current Chinese President Xi Jinping’s academic degree in Chemical Engineering???

9. Does Dan Wang elaborate on many good and bad aspects of rule by engineers???

10. Does Dan Wang even reach back to consider some aspects of life under Chairman Mao???

11. Does Dan Wang spend pp. 10-17 illustrating his “Chinese construction vs. American obstruction” thesis beginning with the 2008 California high-speed train that was supposed to put air travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles out of business???

12. After $23 billion in combined Federal/State funding, did the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s own website admit that as of 9/10/2025 they have completed less than 70 miles of “guideway” (whatever that is) of their projected 494-mile system???

13. And does that same 9/10/2025 press release thank Gov. Newsome and the legislature for promising $1 billion/year through 2045???

14. BTW, would the estimated cost for Phase 1 of the system at $89-$128 billion – WHICH, ASSUMING NO TYPICAL UNDER-ESTIMATES FOR SUCH PROJECTS – still leave the $23 billion already spent and the $20 billion promised $46-85 billion short???

*****
Chapter 2 – Building Big

15. On a 2021 400-mile bicycle ride with friends through remote parts of China, was Dan Wang “astonished by how even China’s poorest provinces have better infrastructure than America’s richest”???

16. Without referring back to the JOKE that is the California High-Speed Rail Project, does Dan Wang mention (p. 23) that Guizhou was one of the last provinces to be connected to the national high-speed rail network because so many tunnels had to be blasted through mountains and so many bridges erected to span gorges – but this was accomplished by 2016???

17. And did China only begin construction of its high-speed rail program (p. 33) in 2008???

18. Has China excelled at constructing as much (relative to population) in a few decades as took America more than a century???

19. Does Dan Wang attribute (p. 32) America’s loss of interest in ”enormous investments to modernize its poorer regions” to “they’re associated with environmental damage…they take so long to complete, and…they’re so rare that people have forgotten how much they can improve lives”???

20. BTW, does Dan Wang mention (p. 35) that China spends only 10% of GDP on social spending – vs. 20% in America and 40% in Europe???

21. Is this surprising for a supposedly Marxist-Communist country???

22. Do you think Dan Wang has counted all those infrastructure projects (such as the national high-speed rail program) in the 10% even though they have beaucoup direct impacts on the standard of living, not to mention the beaucoup jobs they created both during their construction and from the businesses they spawned from resulting regional economic development???

23. Was President Xi Jinping’s attitude toward social welfare captured in a 2021 speech in which he said (p. 35) – “Even when we have reached a higher level of development…we should not go overboard with social transfers. For we must avoid letting people get lazy from their sense of entitlement to welfare”???

24. Does Dan Wang spend pp. 42-47 describing some of the policy mistakes made by China’s engineers (most of them by regional leaders)???

25. Does Dan Wang claim (pp. 47 et seq.) that China ignores environmental concerns (especially with its huge dams) and often employs sub-standard construction materials (e.g., 5,000 children killed in 2008 earthquakes)???

26. Does Dan Wang (pp. 53-55) refer (without so calling it) to America’s four-decade pre-Trump policy of exporting American jobs to low-wage countries, principally China???


*****
Chapter 3 – Tech Power

27. In 1980 did President Deng Ziaoping designate Shenzhen a “special economic zone” which produced a boomtown – 300 thousand in 1980 to 7 million in 2000 to 18 million in 2020???

28. BTW, did we already know that China has more than 12 cities that are larger than NYC (America’s largest) and you have probably never heard of 10 of them??? But is this surprising since 1.42 billion Chinese have to live somewhere???

29. Does Dan Wang make clear (pp. 57-68) that the success of Shenzhen is built on the manufacturing of iPhones???

30. Does Dan Wang posit (pp. 71-75) that technology means not only tools and explicit instruction BUT ALSO MOST IMPORTANTLY “process knowledge” or, in other words, proficiency gained from practical experience???

31. Does Dan Wang (pp. 75-80) continue to harp on (p. 75) viewing technology as people, and (p. 76) how American manufacturing jobs declined from 19 million in 1980 to 17 million in 2000 to 13 million in 2025???

32. Is Dan Wang too polite to point out that this drop in manufacturing jobs contrasted sharply with the rise in America’s population from 225.45 million per the 1980 census to 281.42 million per the 2000 census to today’s 341.96 million per the CIA World Factbook???

33. Does China, despite its high-tech prowess, continue to manufacture low-end items such as clothing and shoes because it has so many workers to employ???

34. But do you think for a moment that China won’t close its clothing/shoe/etc. factories as soon as it can create higher-tech jobs for its workers???