Remarkable how rapidly politics comes into the discussion of Chinese history. Putting that aside, the theory is interesting and plausible for a few reasons, yet probably wrong. I like it because of the weird connections, like the ancient ores and the "nine rivers". This is numerology, not science: searching for support rather than nullification.
The theory is IMO wrong for a much simpler reason. It assumes (as many theories of history do) that the vastness of our planet means that we used to live in disconnected communities, islands of humanity spread out and yet not talking to each other.
You can walk around the globe in 10-20 years. It is unimaginable that trade routes such as the Silk Road did not carry knowledge such as how to smelt bronze, like those African ores, and any other precious good. Wherever there were people, they were innovating and trading goods and knowledge with their neighbors. Only exceptionally were pockets of humanity actually isolated.
You don't need an emperor and his navy to carry knowledge halfway across the globe. One or two people, on foot, will do it, and did it, and so, this nullifies the theory that Chinese civilization somehow sprang from Egyptian civilization. The two co-developed together with the entire connected world at the time.
This is an important footnote that many historians seem to overlook.
However a similar argument makes the seaborne theory plausible too, as it took less than three years to sail or row around the globe, probably ever since the invention of the sailboat (~4000BC?).
Yes, navigable water has always been the crucible of trade. Hence the economy and culture of the Mediterranean even from the early bronze age. And coastal trade is compelling, you don't need sea-faring ships, just dinghies capable of sailing to the next beach. So we can, reasonably, argue that there was a global human economy and civilisation (albeit one that operated really slowly) as early as 5,000 BCE (date that Wikipedia quotes for earliest depiction of a sailboat).
I disagree. Supposed evidence cited in this English summary:
(1) Northwards the stream is divided and becomes the nine rivers. What the original Chinese is saying is that a river to the north of the current location divides and rejoins. This is normal for many rivers, particularly in silted plains such as that of the Yellow River, the dominant river north of the centers of early Chinese civilization. The Yellow river is known to have flooded and changed course many times over history.
(2) Chemical composition more closely resembled those of ancient Egyptian bronzes than native Chinese ores. Tin was traded by many early civilizations, even if you have direct evidence that tin came from the other side of the world it doesn't mean much at all.
(3) Hyksos possessed at an earlier date almost all the same remarkable technology — bronze metallurgy, chariots, literacy, domesticated plants and animals — that archaeologists discovered at the ancient city of Yin, the capital of China’s second dynasty, the Shang. Well, none are hard to invent if you live on a flood-plain with horses, and Chinese civilizations definitely had all of those (in the case of literacy, to some extent) in the Xia (ie. prior to Shang).
(4) Since the Hyksos are known to have developed ships for war and trade that enabled them to sail the Red and Mediterranean seas, Sun speculates that a small population escaped their collapsing dynasty using seafaring technology that eventually brought them and their Bronze Age culture to the coast of China. Oh yeah... so they skipped major cultural centers like the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia's seafaring kingdoms on the way and came all the way to China for no apparent reason? Without needing repairs? Sounds likely. I'd wager local sailors familiar with local conditions were far more likely to trade information and goods in a chain fashion than for a far-flung ship to make it all the way with no particular purpose or direction.
In any event, back then 'China' did not exist, instead you had a few settled peoples in what is now northern coastal China and adjacent areas intermingling. Recent research shows, IIRC, that the genetics of peoples as far north as Shanghai derive in part from Southeast Asian Negrito and Austronesian populations.
Also, the article ignores the fact that at the same time as the Xia and Shang Dynasties you had very developed, independent bronze culture complexes in Sichuan[0] and north Vietnam/Yunnan/Guangxi[1][2], the latter spreading across much of mainland and island Southeast Asia. Central Asia no doubt also had well developed bronze at this stage. Furthermore, if the claims were true there would be genetic evidence, but the real kicker is that the Bronze Age in South Asia began around 3000 BCE. Why would China need to reference Egypt? Archaeology shows they already had bronze, chariots, writing, animal raising and agriculture themselves.
It's plausible in the sense of believable. I did not say it was solid or well-argued. You raise excellent counter arguments. However the point of my comment was there is no need to even go that far, the whole notion of civilizations being carried by shiploads of newcomers is flawed.
Hell, they've found Chinese silk in Bronze-Age Egyptian tombs, and tin from Cornwall in Cyprus during the same era. The world has had global trading routes and communications since almost the first people settled down in agricultural villages, if not before. See 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed[1] for a great illustration of this early interconnectedness.
The theory is IMO wrong for a much simpler reason. It assumes (as many theories of history do) that the vastness of our planet means that we used to live in disconnected communities, islands of humanity spread out and yet not talking to each other.
You can walk around the globe in 10-20 years. It is unimaginable that trade routes such as the Silk Road did not carry knowledge such as how to smelt bronze, like those African ores, and any other precious good. Wherever there were people, they were innovating and trading goods and knowledge with their neighbors. Only exceptionally were pockets of humanity actually isolated.
You don't need an emperor and his navy to carry knowledge halfway across the globe. One or two people, on foot, will do it, and did it, and so, this nullifies the theory that Chinese civilization somehow sprang from Egyptian civilization. The two co-developed together with the entire connected world at the time.