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I first visited China three decades ago and was astounded by the contrast between the new economic

reforms of the then-le-leader

Deng Chauping and the equally astonishing sights of the old China.

Hainan Island in the south, for example, was a modernizing, buzzing, special enterprise zone.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan or Heihe on the Russian border, were cities that seemed relics from the past.

Tens of thousands of workers dressed in identical blue Mao suits cycling to work in old factories,

some built by the Soviet Union.

And now, well, Chengdu is an engine of inventiveness and home to 21 million people.

China's status is that of the rising superpower of the 21st century,

the workshop of the world, with aspirations for even greater economic and technological global dominance.

In this episode, we're going to hear from an expert China watcher on where China is going

and the superpower status of a country still run by the Communist Party, but successfully pursuing what appears to be the most aggressive capitalist road to riches. bitches. How many of us wonder has China modernized so quickly pursuing capitalism and innovation while being run by the Chinese Communist Party?

And how will the superpower rivalry with the United States play out over the next few decades

as a rising China potentially eclipses the economic, scientific, and political domination of the USA.

Dan Wong is a research fellow at the Hoover History Lab at Stanford University,

and author of the much-aclaimed Breakneck, subtitled China's Quest to Engineer the Future.

And he joins me now. Welcome to This is Not a Drill, Dan.

It's my pleasure to be here. Well, let's talk about breakneck, because you say China is on a

breakneck path towards global dominance. It's certainly moved incredibly fast. But what do you

mean by that? What kind of sectors are you talking about? Well, the central idea I introduce in Breakneck is that China is a country I call the engineering

...