Tang China and the Caliphate have been the dominant world powers until the 1800s, until a brutal succession war for the throne of the Caliphate shook the country to its score, opening it to territorial grabs from United Iberia, Holy Roman Italy, and the Roman Empire (Constantinople). In the meantime, the former Anglo-German colonies in Caesaria and Teutonica merged to form Commonwealth of Atlantis, a massive state spanning most of the New World with a combined population larger than China itself. Here, the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions bloomed.
Today, Chinese and Arab influence has greatly waned, with their economies still large, but behind Atlantis, Bharat, the Unified "Roman" Empire", and Scandinavia. Militarily, they have lost almost every major conflict in the last century, and saw their once faithful allies absorbed into Western spheres of influence