In opposition to popular western belief the Chinese far surpassed the Europeans in many ways until the beginning of the 20th century.

Robert temple
It is no exaggeration to say that china was in the position of America and western Europe today and Europe was in the position of say morocco [today]. There was simply no comparison primitive and hopeless agriculture of Europe before the eighteenth century and the … advanced agriculture of china after the fourth century.    

The three most important world discoveries were printing, gunpowder, and the compass.  Striking all three were invented in China.

There is a good deal of evidence to reveal that in terms of all the key economic indicators the east was ahead of the west until at least the beginning of the 20th century.

I regret to not have more but am developing a better idea of paper format. I would like feedback on the best way to shape this paper and thought on expanding the thesis.