The movable type printing press in Asia predates Europe's by centuries. Although it's admittedly more practical to use with a 26 character alphabet.
Education was a very elite thing in most societies, even in the west too. But some thing very strange happened around Gutenberg's times and west was able to take advantage of that unique situation.
For example, there is no parallel of Renaissance or Industrial revolution in any non-western country. China comes close, but even then, not exactly.