Trucks with an empty weight above 3.5 metric tons require separate licenses, and are also tested for road safety in accordance with stricter standards.

I’m not very familiar with how it works in the US, but at least on paper the requirements are pretty much on par with most of Europe.

The main difference is that there are no laws requiring drivers to keep rest periods, and maximum loads are considered a recommendation at best. That’s why you still have a fair number of incidents involving trucks, their brakes for example are tested to decelerate while hauling 20 tonnes, but if in reality it’s closer to 40, even the most generous tolerances aren’t working out.

Fines are a slap on the wrist really, and checks are very random and uncommon (in my 7 years I once encountered a road block on the highway where they actually checked vehicle’s weights, and that was right after a bridge in the city of Wuxi collapsed under an overloaded truck).

Let me check if there’s an English article about that.

Edit: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/eight-people-dead-two-injured-in-bridge-collapse-in-china