It is widely regarded that the early modern age was caused mostly by three factors: the invention of the printing press, the discovery and settlement of america by europeans, and general population growth to have larger workforce.

The thing is, the chinese invented the printing press (with movable letter) 400 years before the europeans did. In europe, the invention is famously attributed to Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 (source), while in China, around 1040 the commoner Bi Sheng already performed printing with movable letters. He created movable type from porcelain. (source). But because the chinese script was so complicated, picking the right letters each time was a chore and so the invention didn't have much impact. Had they used the latin alphabet, picking the right letters would have been significantly easier and they would probably have started the printing revolution instead of the europeans.