I've read that Chinese states were not able to centralise as well as European states because local kingdoms, clans, and authorities held greater power over the local people. However, I've also heard that this started before the Catholic Church's subsuming of clan authority within European life, and is partly due to geographic differences (with Europe and the Levant having more rugged terrain where defensible kingdoms form) whereas China is more suited for Imperial rule. From my understanding, the geography of China seems very similar to Europe, so how was there an Imperial power able to continuously establish control over China but not Europe? Why didn't nation states form after the disintegration of Chinese dynasties, especially those of different ethnic groups (Baiyue, etc).
u/KreepelZeepaardje talks about the origins of Chinese nationalism here , arguing that China only developed nationalism so late because of European influence. And indeed, the orthodox view in nationalism studies is the Andersonian modernist argument that nationalism first appeared in Latin American and diffused outwards. But there’s other views here, such as the newer more iconoclastic primordialist school, which this doesn’t really engage with and which your question should probably receive a treatment of. Honestly, if I have time this week, I’ll try to write another answer here addressing that.