What is the hypothesis?

George Beshore
Science in Ancient China
Franklin Watts, 1998

George Beshore's introduction to science in ancient (really, pre-modern) China seems well meaning and reasonable, but there are enough minor errors and substantial questions to make me respond unfavorably. Minor concerns include the somewhat misleading title, as the scientific discoveries and developments discussed range in date from as early as 1500 BCE (writing and calendars) to as late as 1500 CE (two-stage rockets). The "ancient" descriptive effectively erases three millennia of historical change in China. Additionally, while I can see reason for using "science" as a shorthand for science and technology, nevertheless it is difficult to square the cover image—the Great Wall—with science. The Great Wall, it seems to me, is more about engineering, political absolutism, and military defense. (To the author's credit, I did appreciate the book's wide range of subjects, which included alchemy, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.) I was also frustrated with the inconsistency of Romanization of Chinese names and lack of attention to details. Regarding the latter, the photograph of the abacus on page 47 does not correspond to a number (the two beads on the rod 5th from left should have been "carried over" to the rod 4th from left). Finally, can anyone decipher the two characters that recur in the book? It looks like 相稽, but the second character lacks two strokes in the middle of its right half. Thus, I am unable to see the relationship between the Chinese compound and the book.
  But all these little issues aside, I think the big issue is the way Science in Ancient China oscillates between two narratives: first, that China accomplished any particular scientific feat X years before the Europeans, and second, here is how the Chinese understood such-and-such scientific phenomenon. The former is a kind of horse-racing narrative; the latter more descriptive and explanatory. There is, to my taste, too much of the horse-race. Moreover, the race ends badly for the Chinese who, at the book's end, are described as falling behind due to their cultural chauvinism. While that may be true, it seems to me there is a much richer story to be told about science in pre-modern China.