China presents us with the most striking illustration of just how unlikely the Greek development of rationalism was. The highly productive rice crops support high population densities that in turn led to the largest population and the largest economy in the world for much of human history right up into about 1800 CE. After 1800 CE, the Chinese population remained the largest, but their economy was eclipsed by Western economies.
China suffered badly from internal warfare for much of its early history, but the Qin unified China around 200 BCE, and the Han dynasty triggered a golden age in Chinese history, during which the population and the economy boomed. From that point forward until about 1700 CE, Chinese technology was the most advanced technology in the world.
Yet, with the advantage of the largest population and the largest economy, China never managed to develop science. Instead, its technological achievements were made by a steady process of incremental improvements arising from trial and error. There was the occasional serendipitous discovery, but there was no logical process by which the Chinese thinkers proceeded from theory to application. Indeed, they simply didn’t care about what we call science. It just wasn’t on their radar. Herewith some details:
Chinese Science and Technology