In what respect? Note that Chinese armies also had gunpowder weapons and armies which were equivalent to European musket-level technology. The guns the Chinese really didn't have in comparison with Europe were the breech-loading rifles; but that required metallurgical and industrial development rather than gunpowder improvement.

To put some things into perspective. People often talk about the Qing being regressive in terms of military technology and shunned gunpowder, but this is not true. In fact, research shows that it might actually be the opposite. At least until the 18th century, Chinese cannons were superior to European ones and their muskets were comparable.

For example, according to the 清朝文献通考 (which lists 85 different kinds of artillery), The Wei Yuan Jiangjun Pao (威遠將軍炮), weighed 280-330 jin (1 jin = ~500 grams), fired ball canisters weighing 20-30 jin, and had a range of 200 paces to 3 li, or around 400 meters to 1.7 km.

如放二百步至二百五十步，用藥一斤﹔三百步增二兩﹔如放二三裡，用藥三斤。

If fired [at a distance of] two hundred to two hundred fifty paces, it would require three jin of gunpowder. Three hundred paces would require two additional liang of gunpowder, and two to three li would require three jin of gunpowder.

The Zi-Mu cannon (子母炮) weighs 85-95 jin, mounted on 4 wheels and fires balls weighing 8 jin at a distance of around 500 meters. Qing artillery was advanced because of high rates of fire due to the nature of fixed ammunition, though they sacrificed range.

Furthermore, Qing artillery was incredibly mobile. With an emphasis on light artillery, the Qing could easily disassemble their cannons and carry them on mules, horses, and even camels. Heavier cannons would be melted and recast near the battlefield. See Kai Filipiak's Civil-Military Relations in Chinese History.

This mobility meant that Qing armies had incredibly more cannons per soldier compared to contemporary European armies. Each banner was recorded to have 9 Zi-Mu cannons, 2 Wei Yuan Jiangjun cannons, and one Dragon cannon. The size of an average banner was around 7,500. In larger campaigns, there were even more cannons. In the battle of Jaomodo in 1696, Emperor Kangxi mobilized 80,000 soldiers with 300 cannons, and this soldier:cannon ratio was unseen in Europe at the time.

Picture showing Qing musketeers and cannons against the Mongols.

In addition, the Chinese also reverse engineered a number of European weapons. Early Ming musket, the folanji musket, were reverse-engineered from Portuguese models after the Portuguese were defeated in battle. In their fight against the Manchus, the Ming used Dutch and Portuguese cannons, known as the Hongyipao (literally, "Cannon of the Red Barbarians) to great effect. In fact, these cannons were so effective against the Manchus that the Qing learned to cast them from Ming defectors and started making it themselves.