Hello, this is meant to be a sister thread to an existing
one where the issue of which sociopolitical and cultural-technological developments would have occurred in the Roman Empire if it had survived. This instead focuses on the Chinese side of the issue.
The main assumption is that this is a plausible best case scenario where both Rome and China survive as functional centralized empires, steadily evolve and modernize socially, politically, culturally, and technologically, both on their own and as a result of ongoing extensive trade and cultural exchanges since the 2nd century CE, and become the main global superpowers up to modern times (the theory that centralized empires are inexorably prone to cultural stagnation, and political fragmentation is necessary for steady cultural progress, is hereby deemed to be sheer idiocy).
The divergence is assumed to be Roman conquest of Central Europe in the 1st century, which causes Roman conquest of Parthia in the 2nd century, establishment of extensive and steady cultural and trade exchanges with China since the 2nd century, a momentum for steady cultural progress in both Empires, and Rome successfully weathering crisis points like the 3rd Century crisis, the Hun invasion, and the Justinian plague, as a result.
The sister thread has been discussing the social, political, cultural, and technological developments in the Roman Empire, and a TL has been created as a result of the ideas proffered. This thread is meant to discuss which social, political, cultural, and technological developments occur in the Chinese Empire as a result of steady and extensive cultural, technological, and trade exchanges with Rome since the 2nd century, and the gradual development of superpower imperial competition in Eurasia, and eventually create a TL which gives adequate coverage to both Empires.
Since the issue focuses on broad sociopolitical and cultural developments, the discussion and the TL are kept to a rather high degree of abstraction, analyzing century-by-century trends and big events, rather than the minutiae of individual emperors' careers and the like.