Spurred on by jealousy, fear and spite against its own budding and prosperous merchant class, the ruling elite — aka the central planners — ordered all ships be set on fire. An act of pure self-immolation as it turns out.

This stranded the Chinese people, unable to explore the outside world, and left them isolated and vulnerable to the horrors of the Opium Wars that colonial Britain brought to their shores.

How are we to assume that those merchants were innocent? The Opium Wars were the handiwork of one Iraqi Jewish merchant named David Sassoon. Evidently, they didn't burn enough ships.