The question why an alphabetic Chinese script was never developed is often asked, a good answer is here: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-China-have-no-alphabet-Why-di.... Non-Chinese speakers focus on the cumbersomeness of the script while overlooking how good it fits the tonal languages it's used for (not just Mandarin) and the benefits of radicals.
Western alphabetic supremacists weren't the first ones to suggest that an alphabetic script should be created, Chinese scholars also thought about this quite early but tradition was probably too string even at that time. A similar situation also applies to Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
Western alphabetic supremacists weren't the first ones to suggest that an alphabetic script should be created, Chinese scholars also thought about this quite early but tradition was probably too string even at that time. A similar situation also applies to Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
Another good writeup of Tom Mullaney's work with more details on early ways of writing Chinese characters using codes, etc. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/chine...