[douche]

That's not really correct. Around about the close of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, China was possibly the most prosperous it had been, at least since the golden age of the Song dynasty. There was something on here not too long ago about the industrial revolution in Britain that went into this in some detail[1] - standards of living were a fair amount higher, per-capita, than in Western Europe at the same time.

There is very little that China would, or ever did, want to import from Europe. This was a major historical problem for Western traders in the China market - outside of bullion, and furs, to some extent, they had a real hard time finding products that they could successfully trade.

It's not as though China was bereft of the capabilities of fielding a large, powerful fleet - the Zheng He expeditions in the Ming dynasty were quite impressive, even if the accounts are somewhat exaggerated, and some of the biggest naval battles in history have been fought on Chinese lakes and rivers. But historically, the government was always facing serious threats from the interior of Asia, whereas coastal threats were generally little more than pirates. This has some knock-on effects - less incentive to study astronomy and geometry, when you aren't using them to sail ships around the world, different approaches to fortification - the Great Wall was more of a Ming thing, whereas the Qing, as an outsider foreign dynasty, tended towards assimilation of Mongols and other dangerous nomads into the ruling elite and the banners instead.

[1] http://www.csun.edu/~jaa7021/hist531/Goldstone%20-%20Efflore...

[Retric]

Sure, China had plenty of reasons for falling behind. But, objectively trade is not a state level activity. If they where capable of building long range craft then individuals would have used long range sea trade to make money. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage If nothing else, gold was clearly valuable in China.

Fortifications where generally less useful as you could just send your Army around them. Or as was often the case give up and join the 'winner'. But, again this attitude significantly harmed advancement.

Eastern armor also lagged behind. 'Proofing' armor in the west and tameshi gusoku in the east allows for direct comparison.

Something as 'simple' as Algebra was clearly useful, but again imported.

Photography demonstrated China's lagging in terms of chemistry.

That said, China did have an clear advantage in luxury goods. But calling it superior is objectively false, at best it was different.

PS: Not to mention the Industrial revolution started in ~1760.

[douche]

Ok

[meric]

That's a good description of it. And my upvote as well. I'd like to add by the end of Qianlong's reign, the seed of China's decline had already been sown. After the death of Qianlong, Heshen, the highest ranking official in Qianlong's reign, was found to be tremendously corrupt, he had more wealth than 12 years of Treasury surplus [1][2]. Even after he was prosecuted, the corrupt culture he started had metastasised into the rest of the Qing government. As a result ineffective Qing organisation weren't able to successfully adapt to European incursions in the 19th century. Later in the century the Qing navy lost to Japan's navy, even with the largest and strongest ships in Asia.[3] Kind of like the U.S., with the strongest and most advanced military in the world, mired by its various relationships inside and outside the country, it did less to ISIS in 9 months than what Russia could do in weeks.[4][5]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heshen#Fall_of_Heshen

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianlong_Emperor#Later_years

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Yalu_River_(1894...

[4] http://www.ibtimes.com.au/us-attacks-against-isis-ineffectiv...

[5] http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/614284/Video-Russia-bomb...

[douche]

Official corruption was certainly a huge issue. I don't have it on hand, but I recall reading in one of Pamela Crossley's books a study on the staggering percentage of the Green Standard and Banner military units that carried dead men on their rolls, officers selling off land designated for the maintenance of the military to line their own pockets, and outright embezzlement of military equipment (like the decades-old gunpowder and concrete-filled shells mentioned in your link to the Yalu River article). To some extent, the potentially ruinous expense of training and educating a candidate for the imperial examinations was predicated on a certain level of winked-at "squeeze."

The Taiping Rebellion can't be discounted when looking at the inability of the Qing Empire to cope with Western gunboat diplomacy. Wikipedia lists it as possibly the third most bloody war in the history of mankind[1], and besides dragging on for fourteen years and devastating some of the most productive areas of China, the government nearly fell, and increasingly impoverished and ineffective Manchu banner military forces were phased out and replaced with more regional, semi-private local forces, outside the traditional chain of command, raised and led by men like Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhan and Zou Zongtang. While these initial commanders were more or less loyal to the Qing government, it arguably started the slide towards warlordism.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll

[meric]

Yes, exactly right, the corruption of Qing institutions led to ineffective governance and impoverished people, giving rise to the Taiping Civil War. In fact, the seeds of the 1911 revolution were planted when a retired soldier of the Taiping army told of his stories to the children in his village, one of whom was Sun Yat Sen[1], who was a leader of the revolution that finally overturned the Qing.

Chinese soldiers and chinese equipment, though outdated by the standards of the time, are perfectly capable of defeating European military, on the off chance when they were sufficiently organised[2][3]. The heroes of the late Qing Empire shone, because around them, their colleagues lie low in the depths of corruption and incompetence. It's like a game of Starcraft, even with a bigger army, and bigger economy, an inexperienced player making a couple of mistakes will lose the game quite easily to a more experienced one.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion#Affectness_o...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taku_Forts_(1859)

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cầu_Giấy_(Paper_Brid...

For historical interest, during the high point of the Ming empire, junks achieved in battle, decisive victories over Portguese caravels armed with cannons[3][4].

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tunmen

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Xicaowan