極速前進8：致謝、參考書籍

 

Acknowledgments

Gavekal Dragonomics was the best possible place to think about China. When I had lunch with Arthur Kroeber in New York one day in 2016, I didn’t imagine that his assignment for me to study China’s technology developments would plunge me into an adventure between Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. Arthur is a source of wisdom and good judgment, not only on China, but indeed all things. Andrew Batson taught me how to be an analyst and made me a better writer. Louis Gave ran the company with good cheer and filled its ranks with deeply curious colleagues. Simon Cartledge, friend of the firm, made Hong Kong a more intellectual city. I am glad to have worked with them all.

And the Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center was the best possible place to write a book about China. Professor Paul Gewirtz was the most encouraging mentor imaginable. I am immensely grateful to Paul for arranging a perch for me to reflect on China at just the right remove from the neuroses of both Beijing and Washington, DC. The Paul Tsai China Center was packed with wonderful and knowledgeable colleagues. I am fortunate to have had access to the MacMillan Center (which generously named me a lecturer), the Jackson School, and the broader community of scholars at Yale, including Arne Westad, Jing Tsu, Dan Mattingly, Paul Kennedy, Zach Liscow, David Schleicher, and more.

I break into hives whenever I hear anyone offer a highly confident view of what Beijing will do. Others of us know better. We were analysts, journalists, executives, and diplomats who were aware that none of us held more than fragmentary knowledge on what’s going on in the heads of the leadership. I am grateful to the scores of people in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, DC, with whom I chatted over coffee, lunch, or drinks to engage in that exercise in humility: piecing fragments together.

Toby Mundy had faith in this book before I had a real idea of how to write it. Toby is the most thoughtful and skilled agent one could ask for at every step of the process, from pitching to production. I count my blessings that Toby steered me toward Caroline Adams, my editor at Norton, who bowls me over with her combination of talent, patience, and enthusiasm. Thanks to Pat Wieland, Rebecca Homiski, Kyle Radler, and the entire team at Norton, which is a dream to work with. Leah Paulos of Press Shop brought this book to the attention of many. At Penguin Press, I could count on Casiana Ionita’s steadfast support, while Fiona Livesey helped bring the book to a global audience.

This book wouldn’t be what it is without the support and companionship of Hugo Lindgren, who elevated my ambitions and enlivened its stories. I prospered from Hugo’s regular infusions of writerly confidence. My thanks to Uri Bram, who introduced me both to Toby (whom he called “the best of all agents”) and Hugo (“the world’s finest editor”). Uri is correct. If my spirit wavered, I could expect Nick Bagley to rouse me with his exuberance. The lawyerly society came together after I listened to Nick’s appearance on the Ezra Klein Show and over regular lunches in Ann Arbor. I recommend his forthcoming book as well as his services as a wedding officiant.

This book is stronger from manuscript workshops run by Stephen Kotkin of the Hoover History Lab at Stanford, as well as Henry Farrell and Jessica Chen Weiss of Johns Hopkins SAIS. Breakneck is written from a perspective that makes most political scientists tart and many historians grumpy. I am full of thanks that scholars nonetheless came together to read my manuscript and offer feedback: Stephen Kotkin, Joseph Torigian, Joseph Ledford, Glenn Tiffert, Graham Webster, Covell Meyskens, Anthony Gregory, Eyck Freymann, Weila Gong, and Ria Roy in Palo Alto; Henry Farrell, Jessica Chen Weiss, Tom Orlik, Todd Tucker, James Palmer, Jeremy Wallace, Eugene Wei, and Steven Teles in DC. Henry Farrell and Eugene Wei are intellectual teddy bears; every time I see them I want to take them into my arms and squeeze.

Many people offered encouragement for this book project before I commenced writing, most of all Tyler Cowen. I have felt unbroken gratitude since I was in college that Tyler has taken an interest in my work. We have continued the conversation in Dali, Taipei, Virginia, and, I hope, many more places to come. Eva Dou, Noah Smith, Ben Thompson, Tracy Alloway, Brad DeLong, Patrick Collison, Ezra Klein, Chris Schroeder, Simon Cartledge, Yiren Lu, Stephen Green, Yanmei Xie, Kevin Kelly, Arjun Narayan, Kevin Kwok, and many others gave me early encouragement for this book. I am tremendously grateful to Chris Miller, Evan Osnos, James Crabtree, Tim Hwang, and Henry Farrell for sharing drafts of their proposals.

I am indebted to Arthur Kroeber, Greg Ip, Nick Bagley, Christian Pfrang, and Ola Rye Malm for reading the entire manuscript. And to those who read it in parts, especially my Shanghai friends who offered their perspectives on the lockdown: Ken Jarrett, Ian Driscoll, Gavin Cross, Mattie Bekink, Victor Bekink, Eric Goldwyn, Christian Shepherd, Teng Bao, Jeff Lonsdale, Chris Delong, Hollis Robbins, Kristina Daugirdas, David Schleicher, John Ryan, Patrick Steigler, Gabriel Crossley, Chris Zheng, and others.

My life in New Haven was simple: I went from the library to the squash courts and then back to the library. On the courts, I am glad to have had Nick Frisch, John Ryan, and Nicholas Bequelin as regular partners, all of us equally endowed with little skill but much enthusiasm. Darius Longarino, Karman Lucero, Changhao Wei, and Jeremy Daum kept the office fun with the occasional board-game night. Paul Gewirtz took me to unbelievably prime seats at the ballet. Soaring Eagle kept things interesting. When I craved some of the stimulations in New York, Dave Petersen and Eugene Wei laid out a spare bed for me. Thank you to everyone who made it fun.

Book writing would have been so much lonelier without the companionship of Silvia Lindtner. She is sensitive not only because she has written a book herself; Silvia is also the wisest and most caring person I know. We have gone on adventures together, we have dealt with grief together, we have debated together, and we have experienced so much joy with each other. I never want our conversation to end.

This book is dedicated to my parents, Frank and Rachel. I respect my mom and dad for having the boldness to rùn before it was a thing, no less with a little one in tow. There’s nothing I would change about my childhood. The best lesson I learned as a Royal Canadian Army Cadet was to treat the most difficult things as the most simple things. I want the best for you, which is why I hope you consider the difficult: going out for more exercise, adopting another dog, getting involved with the local community, and, maybe one day, moving to Sunset Park.

Suggestions for Further Reading

• America’s transition into the lawyerly society (which is not necessarily how the author would describe it) is told in Paul Sabin’s Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism (W. W. Norton, 2021).
• An overview of American legal culture is Robert Kagan’s Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law (Harvard University Press, 2003).
• The scale of China’s construction and how its political economy works is discussed in Arthur Kroeber’s China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2020).
• For how China fits into Asia’s growth story, there is no book more compelling than Joe Studwell’s How Asia Works (Grove Press, 2014).
• The essential views of the Industrial Party are laid out in Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem trilogy (Tor Books, 2016).
• The story of Song Jian’s influence is told in Susan Greenhalgh’s Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China (University of California Press, 2008).
• Child abandonment and its heartbreaking consequences are laid out in Kay Ann Johnson’s China’s Hidden Children: Abandonment, Adoption, and the Human Costs of the One-Child Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2017).
• The most interesting account of life in China during enforcement of zero-Covid is Peter Hessler’s Other Rivers: A Chinese Education (Penguin, 2024).
• The most vital book about escape from Han rule, spanning thousands of years, is James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale University Press, 2010).
• Why should America build? See Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance (Avid Reader Press, 2025).
• Perhaps the best China book of all is Fuchsia Dunlop’s Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food (W. W. Norton, 2023).