Could the Chinese been the New World Conquerers

From what I gathered Kristof believes that if the Chinese have been more interested in money they would have rather traveled and conquered instead of worrying about their prestige and education. Kristof writes that the elite Chinese did not care about business. They actually thought less of those that had to do with business or money. For instance, merchants who might have been wealthy would have still been in the bottom of the class system, because to the Chinese money was not important.
I agree to what Kristof say just because anything could be possible. It is difficult to say that the Chinese would not have been able to conquer the New World, because they never tried it. So we do not know if they would have succeeded. I also agree with the comment Kristof says that the Europeans were greedier so that pushed them more. That motivated ...