@Justicar

Your perception of China is likely distorted by their "century of humiliation", from 1839-1945, followed immediately by the absolute disaster of Communism.

But during the same era as Rome under the Republic (~ 200 BC onwards), both civilizations were the 1st to successfully run cities of 1 million inhabitants. Rome 1st, Han Dynasty 2nd.

That's incredibly difficult and is impossible to achieve by low IQ idiots. Britain achieved that in the early 1800's.