The westoids have also said that the Chinese written ideograhic language was a hindrance to China's further tech development or advanced society(got books in my library still saying so!).....now Chinese language has actually benefited brain development,pattern recognition,memory.And now with electronics/software the Chinese language has readily adapted/grew.
Considering all that China has invented over the centuries, then that means it was playing under handicap and still was the most innovative society on the planet for nearly all of human history!