While I agree that the Chinese Tech Group needs a buff (along with the Mesoamerican and Andean groups), I think putting them ahead of Europe Technologically is ridiculous. Best case scenario the penalty should be reduced from 60% to 50%, which would be a better representation of history (or just increase the Sub-Saharan penalty, because most of the anger seems to stem from the fact that the two are equal).
While it is undeniable that many inventions and technological breakthroughs came from China, they were rarely improved upon or refined. While China invented Gunpowder, they never created an effective firearm. Though they came up with a repeating crossbow before Europe, the Cho-Ko-Nu was highly inaccurate and proved to be ineffective against heavily armed opponents, unlike the Arbalest. Though they created one of the earliest calendars, it was too arbitrary to be consistent or accurate. Likewise, any sort of Philosophical thought outside of Confucianism and Legalism was highly discouraged, which greatly impeded the spread of new ideas. This resulted in China entering stagnation in the mid-fifteenth century and becoming technologically backwards by the beginning of the sixteenth.
Part of this was simply due to the way China was structured, culturally and governmentally. The caste system discouraged any sort of meritocracy or social mobility, ancestor worship and inward perfection resulted in many new ideas and inventions being rejected, and the Mandate of Heaven resulted in China viewing themselves as undefeatable, and thus there was little need to adapt militarily (or at all). A massive population also affected this, due to the fact that they could simply throw more ill-trained, equipped and disciplined peasants at an opponent instead of innovating new tactics (something similar to this was also one of the many causes of the fall of the Western Roman Empire; it's overreliance on slaves discouraged technological development since it was cheaper to throw more men at a problem).
While Feudalism in Western Europe was a caste system of sorts, unlike in China, it was lax and not all enveloping. This was demonstrated through the creation of the University, which was sponsored by the Church, where any freeman or noble who could afford an education, as well as had the time for one, could be provided one. This was a stark difference from China, where higher education was usually reserved for the military and bureaucrats, and even then only granted based on recommendation. While some of this was resolved with the introduction of the examination under the Song Dynasty, the education was still only tailored for a career in the government, and still failed to include new ideas.
The fact that China was technologically and ideologically backwards was demonstrated over multiple occasions, such as in the Imjin War, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded the Korean Peninsula in a desire to use it as a staging ground to invade China. Unlike China, the Japanese at the time (due to the Sengoku Jidai), experienced some forms of social mobility and meritocracy, and adapted militarily and technologically, and even a few of them had embraced Western thought and Christianity. The technologically superior and disciplined Japanese Armies, who were led by competent, battle hardened commanders, managed to defeat the Sino-Korean military in almost every major land engagement it fought in, despite being outnumbered by nearly a third (this amounts to nearly 70,000 men, though a third is a conservative number). While ultimately a combination of attrition, Korean Guerilla raids, overextension of the military, the Japanese navy getting destroyed and their supply routes getting cut off, and Hideyoshi's ailing health did them in, it still proved that China was far from the invincible land power it once was.
The after the devastation and humiliation of the Imjin War, followed by another famine due to a bitter winter (this itself can be attributed to a lack of industry), and the Spanish withholding shipments of the much needed Silver that had kept the hyperinflation that wracked 1450's at bay, the Ming utterly collapsed at the hands of a Peasant Soldier and the Manchu, with the surviving remnants of the dynasty too focused on fighting each other for right to be the successor to focus on mounting an effective defense against the Qing.
Despite the fact the China experienced a short technological revival under the Qing, with it's high point occurring under Kangxi, it still relied to a great extent on the west for technological and ideological developments, due to the fact that they had adopted many of the Ming's old policies and ideas. This was demonstrated by the fact that the Imperial Observatory was run by the Jesuits until their expulsion.
Due to the fact that the old Confucian Bureaucracy had continually opposed any sort of adoption of Western thought, and barely tolerated the use of western technology for the military, China was completely overwhelmed by Meiji Japan, who had embraced Western ideas and technology, in the First Sino-Japanese War. This latest humiliation was followed by the Xenophobic and Anti-Christian Boxer Uprising, which resulted in most of the world's great powers descending on China and pushing the already shaky Qing Dynasty over the edge.
So, massive post aside, the China tech deserves a slight buff, but not being ahead of the Europeans. And I took up half a page and nearly an hour just to say why...
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