China had a labor surplus for much of its history. There were not enough economic opportunities, and ever growing numbers of marginalized young men with varying skills in militia training leading to increasing banditry, uprisings, and so forth.
In Northwest Europe, women married when they and their prospective husbands had saved enough to form a new household, typically 24 to 27 years of age. That is several fewer children per woman.
It was also self-balancing. When population was high, wages decreased, so women married later, so population decreased in the next generation. And vice versa.
In China, childbearing was not regulated by economic conditions so the population was controlled via famine, which tends to bring riots, banditry and so on with it.
If Emmanuel Todd is to be believed, on this, his primary area of expertise. Like Noam Chomsky he branched out into other topics later.
Of course there were other regulators in China. Female infanticide was a primary one. Sex ratio imbalances also cause trouble though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_blast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer_process
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_of_th...