This counter-argument, on the other hand, ignores that, until the Yuan, China as a place with an inherently centralized system of government doesn't exist. Prior to the Mongol conquest, Chinese dynasties had spent as much time fragmented and competing with each other as they had ruling over the whole of China and building vast empires.
It is only after the Yuan that you start getting smooth, relatively quick all-China transitions from dynasty to dynasty. Coincidentally, this is when China's position as the uncontested center of the world economically and technologically starts to slip.
Um... the Song dynasty was where the advances were made. You know, under a unified empire.
If what you say is true, why didn't India modernize first? It had so many small kingdoms.
But weren't most of China's pre-Yuan advances during the periods when China was united, rather than in the warring states periods?
Yes, exactly.
No. The Forbidden City was about glorifying the emperor and had no use to ordinary people. Neither did Zheng He's voyages, which China lost a lot of money on. The reconstruction of the Wall was arguably useful, but somehow China was eventually conquered by invaders from the north anyway.
Grand Canal?