The West and the East have different natural philosophies at its origin. The former is concrete and rational, which treats nature as an object that we can observe, study and eventually understand. It separates human and nature as the subject and the object standing at the opposite side, paving the way for modern science.
On the contrary, Chinese natural philosophy is generally abstract and mysterious, treating the universe as a whole system (human as part of it), seeing connections between elements. Laozi(or Lao-Tzu), a great ancient Chinese philosopher, describes Dao(or Tao) as the source of existence, but it’s unseen and indescribable. This type of system thinking and its uncertainty may have slowed down the development of science in Chinese society, but it also provides complementary perspectives for modern science, as we now see in Quantum physics.
P.S. If you don’t know Laozi or haven’t read his book “Daodejing”, I highly recommend checking it out!