I say that because the last major overseas voyages by Chinese sailors (cf. Zheng He) happened around the start of the Ming dynasty. Neither the Ming nor Qing sa

I say that because the last major overseas voyages by Chinese sailors (cf. Zheng He) happened around the start of the Ming dynasty. Neither the Ming nor Qing saw any need to sponsor expeditions, and the Ming further lost control of the seas to the wokou. You could argue that the late-Qing modernization efforts could have ended up with overseas voyages, if they had had Meiji-style success (and not fallen apart), but ifs and buts.