== Utter nonsense regarding China's wealth!! == 

 China was nowhere close to being the wealthiest and most advanced economy at any given point in history!!! India was the wealthiest civlization throughout most of human history!! The "Economic history of Asia" section is outrageously ludicrous!! 

  
 The sentence should be changed from "China was the largest and most advanced economy on earth for much of recorded history until the British Empire (excluding India) overtook it in the mid 19th century."  
 to  
 "According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, India had the world's largest economy from the first to the 18th century, with a (32.9%) share of world GDP in the 1st century to (28.9%) in 1000 AD, and in 1700 AD with (24.4%).The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Angus Maddison. References to the magnificent riches of India have been made in the Bible and in ancient Greek, Roman and Chinese literature and was also the driving factor behind Christopher Columbus's accidental discovery of the Americas." 

 Articles like these further reduce the the already low credibility of Wikipedia!! I thought such malicious misinformation was found only in the 1920s and the 30s!! Such absolute garbage!!! China was nowhere to be seen on the world stage, historically!!