Take It Apart
46 Chinese machines, taken apart. What’s real, what’s hype, and what’s coming to America.
I’m an engineer. I grew up between Shenzhen and California and spent years between Silicon Valley design teams and the factories in China that built what we drew. For every machine in this book I answer three questions: is it real, is it better, and can you buy it here.
- The $10,000 car, the salt battery, the robot taxi: real or brochure
- Why most of it can’t come here, rule by rule
- The Chinese tech already in your house, and what to check
01
How it works
No box in the mail, and no account to set up.
The scoreboard
Who’s really ahead.
Forget the thumbnails. Here is where China and America really stand in twelve fields, and whether you can buy the Chinese machine here. Every call comes straight from a Teardown card in the book.
| Field | China ahead | Level | America ahead | Can you buy it here? | Ch. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheap electric carsChina ahead | China ahead | No tariffs over 100% and the connected-vehicle rule | 1 | ||
| Fast chargingChina ahead | China ahead | No BYD cars are barred; U.S. megawatt charging comes to trucks first | 3 | ||
| Salt batteriesChina ahead | China ahead | Not yet tariffs and credit rules; licensing around 2028 to 2030 | 6 | ||
| RobotaxisLevel | Level | No Chinese self-driving software is barred from model year 2027 | 5 | ||
| Consumer dronesChina ahead | China ahead | No new models blocked by the FCC list; older ones still sold | 12 | ||
| Solar panelsChina ahead | China ahead | Yes with tariffs and duties on top | 27 | ||
| High-speed railChina ahead | China ahead | No CRRC is barred from federally funded transit | 30 | ||
| Humanoid robotsChina ahead | China ahead | Yes no ban; give it a security review first | 36 | ||
| AI modelsAmerica ahead | America ahead | Yes open weights run on U.S. servers; the hosted app sends data to China | 35 | ||
| AI chipsAmerica ahead | America ahead | No Huawei is on the Entity List | 37 | ||
| JetlinersAmerica ahead | America ahead | No no FAA certificate, and none is being sought | 9 | ||
| Quantum computersAmerica ahead | America ahead | No lab machines, not for sale anywhere | 38 |
Take It Apart, the Teardown cards of chapters 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12, 27, 30, 35, 36, 37, 38 · as of October 2026
Seven to four, with one tie. The reasons, the numbers and thirty-four more machines are in the book.
03
Look inside
Real pages from the book. This is what opens on your phone, in type big enough to read without your glasses.
← swipe to see more pages →
04
What’s inside
Forty-six chapters in eight parts, one file. Every chapter ends the same way: the Teardown card. Is it real, is it better, and can you buy it here.
- The $10,000 BYD, and why it costs $22,000 the moment it leaves China · p. 8
- Five-minute charging is real, and why America gets it in the 2030s · p. 18
- Who really leads in driverless taxis: Baidu or Waymo, by the numbers · p. 26
- The drone ban that isn’t a ban: what you can still buy and fly · p. 58
- Your GE fridge and your Roomba are Chinese-owned now. Should you care? · p. 76
- The $6,000 humanoid: gadget or butler, and the hidden data channel · p. 88
- The battery backup that beats the generator, and the outage where it doesn’t · p. 99
- Thorium, fusion and the reactor that cools itself: what each one proved · p. 108
- DeepSeek’s “$6 million”, and the real bill behind it · p. 151
- The chips China still can’t make, and how far behind it really is · p. 161
- The cancer drug that beat Keytruda: in whom, and when the FDA decides · p. 170
- The dozen Chinese devices probably in your house, and the ones to check · p. 204
And that is a fraction of it. Forty-six chapters, 219 pages, and a Teardown card at the end of every one.
05
Get your copy
$27 once. No subscription. Yours to keep.
A PDF on your phone about thirty seconds after you pay. Nothing ships. Print it at home if you like paper.
Take It Apart
- 219 pages, forty-six chapters, the source under every number
- Instant PDF download, on your phone about thirty seconds after you pay
- A Teardown card at the end of every chapter: real, better, and can you buy it here
- The walls on one page: every rule that keeps Chinese machines out
- 30-day money back, and you keep the book
Secure checkout · One payment, no subscription · Nothing ships
Goes with it
Made in America, Again and After Oil two shorter books by Kevin
the other two come to $20.99 together instead of $63
Don’t want all three? Build your own bundle →What readers write me
Kevin Cheng
I’m Kevin Cheng. I was born in Shenzhen and moved to California when I was eleven. Most summers after that I went back to work at my uncle’s stall in Huaqiangbei, the biggest electronics market in the world, sorting chips and fixing phones.
I studied mechanical engineering in the U.S., then spent years in hardware product development, flying between design teams in Silicon Valley and the factories in China that built what we drew. I hold a few small patents and a garage full of half-finished prototypes.
I’m not a cheerleader for either side. When a new machine shows up, I want to know three things: is it real, is it better, and can you buy it here. This book is my answer for 46 of them.
Nobody pays me to write this. Not a carmaker, not a government, not a fund.
Every machine can be taken apart. That’s how you find out what’s true.
Kevin
Questions people ask before they buy.
Is a paper book coming in the mail?
No. It is a PDF. That is a book you read on a screen. Nothing comes in the mail. It is on your phone about 30 seconds after you pay. Want paper? Print it at home or at the library.
I’m not good with computers.
That is fine. You tap one button and the book opens. No account. No password. Stuck? Write to me here. I will help you, or give you your money back.
Is this a subscription? Will you charge my card again?
No. You pay one time. That is all. No monthly fee, ever.
What if I lose the file?
The link is in your email. Open the email and tap it again. Lost the email too? Write to me from the email you paid with. I will send it the same day.
Is this book for China or against China?
Neither. I look at each machine like an engineer. Some Chinese machines are better. Some are just loud. Some American ones win. I tell you which is which, and I show you where every number comes from.
Can’t I find this free online or in videos?
Some of it, yes. But a lot of videos only say “shocking” and never say if it is true. Here every machine gets checked. You get the real numbers, the rules, and a simple answer at the end of each chapter.
$27 for a book?
One chapter can save you more than that. Page 99 shows when a home battery is enough and when you still need a generator. That is a choice worth thousands of dollars. And you have 30 days to get your money back. You keep the book.
Is it up to date?
Yes. Everything was checked in October 2026. Some things are not decided yet, like a big FDA decision in November. The book says so and gives you the date. It does not guess.
Do I need to know about engineering?
No. I explain every machine in plain words. If you can read a newspaper, you can read this book.
I don’t live in the U.S. Is this for me?
Yes. The machines are the same everywhere. The parts about what you can buy are about the U.S. I also tell you what Canada and Mexico allow.
08
Still deciding?
Ask me anything here. I read every message myself, and I write back.
