1) Mongols killed 50% of the Chinese population.
 
"...According to the Chinese history not more than one hundredth part of the population survived, the countryside was covered with human bones, the cities left desolate..."
 
—“The Mongol Conquest Of China And Its Consequences”, by George Tait Edwards.

2) Mongols divided people into four classes, Chinese were the lowest.
1. Mongols 2. Semu people  3. Northern Chinese 4. Southern Chinese
 
---Society Under Mongol Rule, www.encyclopedia.com

3)Bayan, the Mongolian Grand Chancellor suggested killing  all Chinese with one of the most popular surnames.
Bayan of the Merkid, Wikipedia


4)Genghis Khan’s Yassa.
 
Killing a Chinese = killing a donkey.
 
“In cases of murder, one could ransom himself by paying fines which were: for a Mohammedan - 40 golden coins; and for a Chinese - one donkey (which was the cheapest).”




5)After Mongols conquered China, China became a part of Mongol Empire.  The Chinese King was ordered to commit suicide.
Emperor Gong of Song, Wikipedia

Later, Manchuria conquered China (the Ming Empire).

1) Manchus  ruled China for 300 years till 1911.
Manchus killed 50% of the Chinese population.
The Chinese population went down from 100 million to 50 million.

Manchu conquest of China,  Wikipedia

 

Manchus had the right of the first night in China.

 

2) ” Earlier historians had emphasized the power of Chinese to “sinicize” their conquerors… (But) the Grand Council operated only in Manchu until the 1730s (90 years after Manchuria conquered China), and many other important edicts and memorials did not have Chinese translations."

New Qing History, Wikipedia

3)“Resolving Confusion with a Discourse on Righteousness”, By Manchurian King,  Yongzheng.

“Heaven (The God) detested that the inner lands (China) had no one with virtue and so in concern ordered we outlanders to be lords of the inlands., then it is the people of the Middle Kingdom (China) who are no better than birds and beasts.”


4)Nurhaci, the first King of Manchurian Empire, was a descendant of Möngke Temür, a Mongol-Jurchen headman.

He is also generally credited with ordering the creation of a new written script for the Manchu language based on the Mongolian vertical script.


Nurhaci, Wikipedia

And why do seemingly educated people write questions in English beginning without a capital letter - and closing with two question marks?
As they sorrt of say in parts of UK, 'Eee bay gum. lad, thay's nay acconting fer folk.'
It is my simple opinion that undereducated people wherever and whenever know b*****r all about anything, really.

Ah - "Education, education, education!" Discuss - or we would have attempted to before the deluge. (c.2016 - to ?)

To lead/draw out  - is that the correct root? Where did it all go wrong?

Do "undereducated" people believe China was a superpower at the time of Marco Polo? Well if they do it's probably because they are undereducated and so largely it's understandable and excusable.

Marco Polo arrived at Kublai Khan's court at Dadu (present-day Beijing) some years after China had been conquered by the Mongols; with all the attendant bloodshed that experience had involved for the Chinese. Kublai Khan was already thoroughly installed as the master of China and was governing the huge Mongol empire from there. Under Kublai Khan scholarship was encouraged, and scientists, astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, engineers, theologians, geographers, artists and musicians were all patronized. Many of these were of course Muslim scholars who had been deliberately encouraged to migrate to China so that they could combine their knowledge of ancient Greek, Arabic and Indian science with that of the Chinese. Kublai Khan's Mongol empire was undoubtedly the world's super-power but its overall administration - whether militarily, politically, culturally or academically - was largely controlled from China where the Great Khan resided.

However I wouldn't think that many ordinary Europeans or Americans these days have more than just a passing knowledge of who Kublai Khan or Marco Polo were; if asked I suspect many people might say that Kublai Khan was himself Chinese and similarly would be unable to place Marco Polo's voyage in the correct century. I too am largely ignorant of Chinese and Mongol history nevertheless I doubt than anyone with just a bit of understanding of the time would ever think that late-13th century China on its own was a great power.