Why did the Japanese almost destroy China?

The decline of China began in the late Ming Dynasty. In the late Ming dynasty, firearms were still highly valued, and even less so in the Qing dynasty. Firearms in China were backward in history, not to mention that even the national tax revenue in Qing Dynasty was not as good as that of the East India Company, which was more than 300 years behind. The Revolution of 1911 completely ended feudalism, and Yuan Datou didn't reap its fruits at all. This is a joke, because he overthrew the Qing government, and the People's Party didn't have much strength during the period of Beiyang Warlords for at least the next 20 years. By 1937, the development of the Kuomintang was actually very little, and even the warlord problem was not completely solved. The Japanese have been in China for more than 50 years. And Japan can be said to be a quasi-first-class power, and its military strength was linked to China at that time.