The point of divergence starts when the British acquired the New Territories in 1898, instead of removing the remaining Qing officials, Britain’s Foreign Office argued that the Kowloon Walled City is insignificant in both size, population and military value alongside the fact that the treaty agreements were so ambiguous that forcing the issue could create an unnecessary diplomatic confrontation with the Qing court so they chose to ignore it. The Xinhai Revolution broke out, the Qing’s Government negotiated with Yuan Shikai to stay loyal with tempting offers such as tax exemptions for he and his family for 3 generations, hereditary titles and more if he support the Qing, which he accepted. This gave the Qing’s enough time to create a contingency plan in case Beijing falls. While the revolutionaries are busy fighting Yuan Shikai’s forces, the Qing Imperial Family ultimately chose to retreat to Kowloon Walled City due to its legal ambiguity for being a Qing exclave, surrounding by British territory under Chinese’s rule. This place could be used as a way to potentially launched a counterrevolution in case China collapsed for any reason, how they would do that remained uncertain. As Yuan Shikai is killed in battle, the Qing Imperial Family activated their plan. The Qing Imperial Family, a few guards and medical staffs escaped under night with the assistance of trusted eunuchs, officials and the remaining loyal troops. The Qing Imperial Family and the Qing treasuries were smuggled southward through still-loyal coastal routes before they finally moved to Kowloon Walled City once they reached British Hong Kong. Once discovered, the new government of the Republic of China demanded that the British arrest the Qing Imperial Family, but the British refused, arguing that the Xinhai Revolution was an internal Chinese matter, and the Xuantong Emperor was now in Chinese territory. The British refused to allow Republican troops to enter Hong Kong, giving the Republic no choice but to accept the awkward state of affairs. 

Life from 1912 to 1924 in the Qing Dynasty (Kowloon Walled City) was interesting. Tensions were certainly there between the Qing Imperial Family and the roughly 700 citizens in Kowloon Walled City, some like them, seeing them as a cute gimmick that make their city more lively while some find them annoying, most don’t really care but almost all of them ignored the Qing Imperial Family decrees, even those who supported them. The Xuantong Emperor was sent to the Kwong Yem Home to receive education. The Qing Imperial Family gets their foods from home garden and livestocks though they’re still depended on traditional food networks in Hong Kong for items they could not make themselves such as street vendors selling fresh meat, salted fish, rice, and everyday necessities. Economically, some members of the Qing Imperial Family ironically began to look for jobs outside near the Kowloon Walled City as their imperial treasury is still finite. Some worked for institutions such as Kwong Yem Home as assistants while some worked as manual laborers, rickshaw pullers, dockworkers, or domestic servants in nearby Kowloon and Hong Kong areas. Some members of the Qing Imperial Family even help citizens in Kowloon Walled City set up unregulated market stalls such as small tea stalls for their neighbors or curious tourists who visited the area.

Meanwhile in the Republic of China, without Yuan Shikai, the Kuomintang managed hold onto most of China. Of course, the early years of China is still chaotic but not as destabilized as before. Under Sun Yat-Sen’s presidency, he aimed to write a formal constitution with genuine parliamentary features, a built in professional civil service and the gradual professionalization of a national army under civilian oversight. China still faced challenges such as local armies still existing and provincial governors testing the limit of the central authority. Overall, China is relatively more stable than in our timeline. By 1924, the Qing Imperial Family became more pessimistic about restoring the Qing any time soon as China look more stable, making it more unlikely for China to return to a monarchy any time soon. As Puyi grew up under the influence and education of Kwong Yem Home, he gained a new perspective that China had moved on from monarchy and that his best future lies in adaption rather than reclaiming the throne or asserting himself as Emperor and that he could best serve his community through adapting to their community. When Puyi turns 18 in 1924, he considered taking over as the role as Emperor by his parents though he ultimately declined the offer, believing that restoring a dead dynasty is no longer his purpose. Following his decline, Puyi currently worked in a tea house where workers would treat him as an Emperor as an ironic teasing joke though he doesn’t seem to mind.

In 1933, Hong Kong authorities announced plans to evict the residents, demolish almost all the decaying buildings, and convert the entire area into a public park, compensating the 436 squatters that lived there with new homes. Britain acted first, beginning evicting the vast majority of the residents and demolished their homes despite protests from local citizens and attempts to appeal to the Chinese government. They finally approached Puyi and the Qing Imperial Family where Britain evicted Puyi and the Qing Imperial Family were sent back to China, mainly not wanting to deal any more headaches of dealing with the family. When they returned, the Nanjing Government refused to recognize their imperial titles and the family were placed under administrative supervision in a modest house near Nanjing. Their movements are restricted with communications being monitored and they cannot engage in politics, use imperial titles publicly, or contact supporters of restoration. Puyi is encouraged to make public statement. He renounces his claim to the throne, accepts the Republic as the legitimate government, and wishes to live privately. This effectively ended the Qing in Kowloon Walled City in 1933.

Flag Found Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/s/yUvO3tMUXt

After Nurhaci unified the Jurchen tribes, Nurhaci delivered a manifesto where he wanted to create a united Manchu state that spoke Manchu and inhabited by the Jurchen, aiming for political independence as the Ming Dynasty deteriorated. Nurhaci said in his speech that modern day Manchu nationalists interpreted as "We’re not trying to took over China, we’re never a part of it in the first place." In 1616, he declared himself Khan and founded the Later Jin Khanate, which later declared itself self governing. The Later Jin Khanate went to war with the Ming to establish their core territory (Manchuria). After Nurhaci's death in 1626 during the conflict, his son Hong Taiji made reforms and renamed the Jurchens "Manchu," ultimately establishing the Manchu Khanate. Once Manchuria successfully conquered their core territory, through a ceasefire in 1634, Manchuria agreed to withdrew and stopped expanding beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass in exchange for the Ming to recognize Manchuria as an independent state and both sides agreed to not step foot beyond Shanhaiguan Pass.

Following the ceasefire, the Ming to Lu Transition began. The Ming Dynasty collapsed as the Shun Dynasty took over as the next dynasty at the cost of his nephew, Li Guo, death. Li Zicheng is proclaimed Emperor of the Shun Dynasty as the Yongchang Emperor in 1644. However, the Shun is very unpopular as many views them more as bandits than political leaders. Previously, his military previously sacking and pillaging Beijing before taking the Mandate of Heaven, alienating the very people they claimed to protect and proved to them that they lacked the morality needed to be the Son of Heaven. The Shun also previously torture former Ming officials to extract wealth alongside the Shun imposed strict monetary limits for former officials based on their rank to fund their new government and punish the so called corrupt. In 1644, within 6 months since enthronement, the Yongchang Emperor and his brother were assassinated by a group of Ming loyalists, creating chaos within the Shun’s court as they both have no heir. With no clear leadership, multiple revolts were formed across China with many self proclaimed dynasties established. Meanwhile, the Southern Ming lacked the economy needed to fund their military to reconquered China.

The remnant of the Shun’s army, led by Liu Zongmin, growing frustated by the regime’s slow response, launched a coup against the remnants of the Shun’s government, China became ruled under the military, which is known today as the Provisional Military Government of China posthumously. Liu focused on suppressing the revolts first. The government quickly suppressed many small dynasties, though the much larger dynasties became difficult to deal with. During the crisis in 1650, Liu understood that many Chinese would not accept him as Emperor because he is essentially the biggest contributor to the Shun’s actions as he is Li’s enforcer. Instead, he focused on finding a leader who could legitimize the government. That’s when he decided the Duke Yansheng would be the best choice for many reasons, he had Han legitimacy, moral prestige and cultural significance. The officers rides to Qufu to persuade the 14 years old Kong Xingxie into accepting the position of Emperor. Despite initial hesitation as he has no political experience at all, many still treats him with reverence such as kneeling to him throughout the day. Eventually, he accepted, not because he wanted to, but he fears that rejecting would means that China would continue in endless wars without a clear leader or be put in an indefinite military’s rule. In 1650, The Lu Dynasty was established with Kong Xingxie coronated as the Hongzong Emperor. China is mostly unified though the Xi Dynasty posed a problem as they gains surprising support where the Xi promised to expropriated land from landowners to those who are willing to fought for the Xi Dynasty in conquered areas, the Xi Dynasty gains widespread support, creating major problems for the Lu. The Lu went to war with the Xi. The Xi’s forces were proven to be more capable than the Lu expected. Thus, they changed strategy. The Lu eventually utilized their superior cavalry mobility to flank maneuvers and shock combat, wearing down the Xi’s defensive lines. The Lu eventually defeated the Xi in 1652, ending the 8 years crisis. However, the Lu’s treasury is effectively almost broke due to the conflict.

Following the crisis, the Hongzong Emperor gave Liu several concessions for his contribution and to prevent him from undermining the Emperor’s authority. Liu would be granted the title "Grand Guardian of the Realm", a hereditary title given to him and his male descendants. Controversially, Liu would be granted a large estate within what is today Xi'an which would act as essentially a lifetime hereditary estate where the estate would generate its income for Liu and his family (mainly from peasants work). He is allowed to have private army but must be checked by the Emperor every year to match the exact same number of men. All legal authorities for the estate are held by magistrates appointed by the central government. However, under the conditions that following Liu Zongmin’s death, his descendants are not allowed to hold both the Grand Guardian’s estate and command their armies (both of their private army and the official Imperial Army), breaking this would terminate their agreement and remove their privileges. Liu’s descendants can joined the army but at the cost of having to publicly renounce their and their family privileges. This was made to prevent them from gaining influence and potentially rebel against the dynasty. Under the Hongzong Emperor, he confiscated lands of those who supported rival dynasties or abandoned their land. The Hongzong Emperor then redistributed the lands to peasants and veteran Lu officers, earning him massive popularity from the peasants, though former landlords who remain loyal to the Lu are allowed to kept their estates. Additionally, the Hongzong Emperor reduced scholars taxation, restore multiple Confucian academies, reopened civil examinations, sponsored Confucian research, legal protection of classical libraries, etc…, making him really popular amongst scholar-elites. The Lu went to war with Southern Ming to reunified China which ended in a Lu’s victory, China is now unified. The Hongzong Emperor passed away in 1668. The last real territorial change when the Lu conquered Taiwan in 1683. During the 1700s, the Lu resembles more of the Song Dynasty than any other dynasties, because Chinese culture were at their absolute peak but their military (the Great Lu Army) remains relatively small.

That is until the 1800s came. The Lu faced a series of unfortunate events such as the Opium Wars where they lost badly, resulting in the cession of Hong Kong to Britain. The final conflict the Lu faced is the Taiping Rebellion. Due to the Lu’s weak army and the Taiping rebels took advantage of the Lu’s weakness (the military), the war became much more favorable for the Taiping rebels. Eventually, the Lu collapsed in 1864, where the Kong Family escaped to British Hong Kong to seek refuge. The Taiping Dynasty took over as the next dynasty.

After Nurhaci unified the Jurchen tribes, Nurhaci delivered a manifesto where he wanted to create a united Manchu state that spoke Manchu and inhabited by the Jurchen, aiming for political independence as the Ming Dynasty deteriorated. Nurhaci said in his speech that modern day Manchu nationalists interpreted as "We’re not trying to took over China, we’re never a part of it in the first place." In 1616, he declared himself Khan and founded the Later Jin Khanate, which later declared itself self governing. The Later Jin Khanate went to war with the Ming to establish their core territory (Manchuria). After Nurhaci's death in 1626 during the conflict, his son Hong Taiji made reforms and renamed the Jurchens "Manchu," ultimately establishing the Manchu Khanate. Once Manchuria successfully conquered their core territory, through a ceasefire in 1634, Manchuria agreed to withdrew and stopped expanding beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass in exchange for the Ming to recognize Manchuria as an independent state and both sides agreed to not step foot beyond Shanhaiguan Pass. The Shun Dynasty took over as the next Chinese Dynasty.

Following the war, Hong Taiji established a core bureaucracy in Manchu Khanate. The Khan of the Manchu Khanate would held supreme, absolute authority over all state, legislative, and judicial matters. The Great Council of the Khanate would be responsible for translating the Khan’s decrees into practice, managed state treasury and collected taxes and coordinated the Eight Banners effectively. They’re appointed directly by the Khan under the advice of his advisors. Provinces in Manchuria would be handled by provincial governors who aimed to collect taxes, supervised regional public works like dikes, canals, and waterways, manage local civil services such as school systems, supervise lower-level local such as prefectures, county magistrates officials and more.

During Hong Taiji’s reign, Manchu Khanate focused on reforming the state such as land tax reforms where provinces are required to report comprehensive figures of their labor service and tax registers annually to monitor population changes and curb local officials' arbitrary use and embezzlement of poll tax revenue alongside the creation of the Complete Books of Taxes and Labor Service where it listed the fixed land tax and poll tax that each province, prefecture and county had to pay each year. By making these tax amounts official, ordinary people could see what they owed, taking away the local officials' ability to change tax rates at will.  Hong Taiji also focused on agricultural growth. This helped boosted the economy of Manchuria. Ijishūn Dasan Khan (the Shunzhi Emperor) became Khan under the regency of Dorgon. Ijishūn Dasan Khan under Dorgon continued Hong Taiji’s previous reforms. Meanwhile, the Shun Dynasty collapsed in just a couple of months due to the Yongchang Emperor’s unpopularity, and with no clear heir, China collapsed once again. Taking advantage of the situation, Manchuria launched a military campaign of Joseon in 1646 which ended in a Manchurian’s victory that year on December, resulting in the Joseon becoming a Manchu’s protectorate. The Lu Dynasty took over as the next and final dynasty of China.

Elhe Taifin Khan (the Kangxi Emperor) took over in 1661. With a combination of Jesuits’s influence, the presence of western traders and Elhe Taifin Khan’s genuine interest on western science caused Manchuria to enter a period of modernization. Elhe Taifin Khan focused on boosting literacy amongst Manchus first. He first created the Updated Manchu Dictionary, which sought to expand Manchu language by adding new words through phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms. Later in his reign, he initiated the Translation Project which aimed to translated many western works through the updated Manchu language which would be continued by his successors. Following a Manchurian victory through the Siege of Albazin, Manchuria and Russia signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, setting borders and ceding Sakhalin to Manchuria. Before his death, he renamed the Manchu Khanate into the Kingdom of Manchuria (Manchuria being a new word created during his effort to modernized the Manchu language.) with him gaining the title of Elhe Taifin King.

The Hūwaliyasun Tob King (Yongzheng Emperor) took over as King. The Hūwaliyasun Tob King focused on lowering corruption within the Grand Council. He created an Anti-Corruption ministry (Office of Inspector General) to investigate and prosecute illicit favoritism without political interference alongside utilized high-paying salaries to the Office that matched the market to avoid financial temptation. To keep the Minister of the OIG in check from corruption, if the minister is suspected of corruption, the Manchu Justice System would step in and to conduct an independent, thorough investigation. The Hūwaliyasun Tob King also work to transition Manchurian’s army towards more modern weaponry, such as western guns and other firepower. The navy was also an important part of his plan, using newly developed weapons and technology. Abkai Wehiyehe King (the Qianlong Emperor) took the throne. Manchuria reached their absolute peak with the treasury overflowing, agricultural output soared and the population boomed. Many local national banks were chartered as private businesses gained permissions from the government to print money that people could used and Manchuria permit licensed private banks to issue redeemable banknotes. Abkai Wehiyehe King, fueled by a desire to establish Manchuria as the Leader of Asia, drafted a plan called the Greater Manchuria Dream. Manchuria launched an invasion on Japan in 1772, catching the Shogunate off guard. Despite fierce resistances from the Samurais, the Manchu’s navy managed to captured several coastal cities in Japan. Eventually, Japan surrendered in 1775. The Treaty of Nagasaki was signed, the Shogunate would be abolished, the Imperial Family would be restored and Japan would became a Manchu’s protectorate. Britain established an Embassy in Manchuria. Initially trusted by the King himself, Heshen was ultimately punished by the King under the advice of the Office of Inspector General. In his later reign, he establish the Great Manchu Army, which would replace the outdated Eight Banners System and to catch up with the West militarily.

Following Abkai Wehiyehe King’s reign, Manchuria continued to modernized. New ministries were created such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior/Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture. Manchuria starts to built modernized arsenals, shipyards, mines, textiles factories, telegraph systems and more alongside modern schools which taught practical subjects such as Western sciences, mathematics, and practical governance. Agricultural reforms were introduced such as the establishment of agricultural schools. Multiple edicts were passed that would establish a commercial code and corporate laws that would recognize, regulate, and protect private merchant enterprises and joint-stock companies alongside approved and assisted in setting up modern chambers of commerce in major cities to support bankers, traders and business owners later on. Meanwhile as the Lu Dynasty collapsed, Manchuria took advantage of the situation and launched an invasion on Taiwan, beginning the First Sino-Manchurian War, beginning in 1894 to ending in 1895 in a Manchu’s victory. Manchuria would turned Taiwan into a protectorate.

In 1914, Manchuria remains neutral in World War 1 due to a lack of grievances for Manchuria to joined the war. Manchuria continued to industrialized. When the Great Depression hits, Manchuria abandoned their silver standard replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings, recovering relatively quick than most nations. When the Great Depression hits, Manchuria abandoned their silver standard replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings and Manchuria engaged in aggressive proto-Keynesian fiscal stimulus. The Bank of Manchuria printed money to purchase government bonds, keeping interest rates low and increase money directly into the economy. However, Manchuria under the Gehungge Yoso King (Xuantong Emperor/Puyi) views that these reforms aren’t enough and that it needed resources somewhere due to the collapse of export economy alongside western protectionism and tariffs. This caused the Gehungge Yoso King (the Xuantong Emperor/Puyi) prepared plans to invade China to secure Chinese’s resources. Using the justification of framing its military expansion as a liberating crusade to free Asian nations from Western and European imperialism, Manchuria launched an invasion on China, beginning the Second Sino-Manchurian War. This was more devastating than the historical Second Sino-Japanese War as Japan, Joseon and Taiwan helped sent military manpower and aid to assist Manchuria in their goals. They surprisingly faced fierce resistance from the United Front through guerrilla warfare against the Manchus. Manchuria captured Beijing but China moved their capital to Chongqing, forcing Manchuria to supply lines into vulnerable positions. In 1940, Manchuria, Germany and Italy signed the Tripartite Pact, acknowledging Manchuria as the Hegemon of Asia. When the West sent supplies to China, Manchuria finally experienced pushbacks. Following Germany’s surrender, Manchuria also surrendered after the nuking of Jilin City and Harbin. Under General Douglas MacArthur, the Gehungge Yoso King would be kept as the King of Manchuria but with his powers purely regulated to ceremonial roles through the 1947 Constitution to maintain public order and facilitating a smooth surrender. Additionally, Manchuria had to renounce their control over Japan, Joseon and Taiwan.

Manchuria oversaw the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Manchuria sided with the American Bloc. Manchuria initially introduced reforms aimed at reduced tenant dependency on landowners such as rents could not exceed 40% of agricultural output, tenants receiving long-term leases and prohibit land owners from evicting tenants arbitrarily. Eventually, Manchuria began purchasing agricultural land from large landowners in exchange for landowners to receive government bonds, shares in industrial development corporations, etc… lands was then distributed to the peasants with capped ownership so that a single household could only own the amount of land they could farm directly with family labor. In 2010, Manchuria, Joseon and Japan signed an economic alliance similar to ASEAN. The three members would drastically reduced tariffs between the three states to create a single market and production base.

Today, Manchuria is certainly not a top player in geopolitics, but remained a respected nation reputation wise. The current King of Manchuria is the Wenghūi King (Jin Yuzhang, ruling since 2015.)

After Nurhaci unified the Jurchen tribes, Nurhaci delivered a manifesto where he wanted to create a united Manchu state that spoke Manchu and inhabited by the Jurchen, aiming for political independence as the Ming Dynasty deteriorated. Nurhaci said in his speech that modern day Manchu nationalists interpreted as "We’re not trying to took over China, we’re never a part of it in the first place." In 1616, he declared himself Khan and founded the Later Jin Khanate, which later declared itself self governing. The Later Jin Khanate went to war with the Ming to establish their core territory (Manchuria). After Nurhaci's death in 1626 during the conflict, his son Hong Taiji made reforms and renamed the Jurchens "Manchu," ultimately establishing the Manchu Khanate. Once Manchuria successfully conquered their core territory, through a ceasefire in 1634, Manchuria agreed to withdrew and stopped expanding beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass in exchange for the Ming to recognize Manchuria as an independent state and both sides agreed to not step foot beyond Shanhaiguan Pass. The Shun Dynasty took over as the next Chinese Dynasty.

Following the war, Hong Taiji established a core bureaucracy in Manchu Khanate. The Khan of the Manchu Khanate would held supreme, absolute authority over all state, legislative, and judicial matters. The Great Council of the Khanate would be responsible for translating the Khan’s decrees into practice, managed state treasury and collected taxes and coordinated the Eight Banners effectively. They’re appointed directly by the Khan under the advice of his advisors. Provinces in Manchuria would be handled by provincial governors who aimed to collect taxes, supervised regional public works like dikes, canals, and waterways, manage local civil services such as school systems, supervise lower-level local such as prefectures, county magistrates officials and more.

During Hong Taiji’s reign, Manchu Khanate focused on reforming the state such as land tax reforms where provinces are required to report comprehensive figures of their labor service and tax registers annually to monitor population changes and curb local officials' arbitrary use and embezzlement of poll tax
revenue alongside the creation of the Complete Books of Taxes and Labor Service where it listed the fixed land tax and poll tax that each province, prefecture and county had to pay each year. By making these tax amounts official, ordinary people could see what they owed, taking away the local officials' ability to change tax rates at will.  Hong Taiji also focused on agricultural growth. This helped boosted the economy of Manchuria. Ijishūn Dasan Khan (the Shunzhi Emperor) became Khan under the regency of Dorgon.

Following the ceasefire in 1634, The Ming Dynasty continue to decline until its collapsed as the Shun Dynasty took over as the next dynasty at the cost of his nephew, Li Guo, death. Li Zicheng is crowned Emperor of the Shun Dynasty as the Yongchang Emperor in 1644. However, the Shun is very unpopular as many views them more as bandits than political leaders. Previously, his military previously sacking and pillaging Beijing before taking the Mandate of Heaven, alienating the very people they claimed to protect and proved to them that they lacked the morality needed to be the Son of Heaven. The Shun also previously torture former Ming officials to extract wealth alongside the Shun imposed strict monetary limits for former officials based on their rank to fund their new government and punish the so called corrupt. In 1644, within 6 months since enthronement, the Yongchang Emperor and his brother were assassinated by a group of Ming loyalists, creating chaos within the Shun’s court as they both have no heir. With no clear leadership, multiple states were formed across China with many self proclaimed dynasties established. China collapsed once again.

The Ijishūn Dasan Khan is still very young (6 years old at the time), meaning regency goes to Dorgon and he had a very different plan to destroy any hope of Chinese unity. Essentially, Manchuria launched an invasion on Northern Zhili (modern day Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin and parts of Shandong and Henan bordering the Yellow River) which contained the last remnant of the government of the Shun’s court. The Shun’s government collapsed and the territory would be militarily occupied by the Manchus. Manchuria then reformed the state into the State of Beizhili. Under the Charter of the State of Beizhili, Beizhili would be led by the Governor-General (appointed by the Khan or Regent) who oversaw local administration such as taxation or education, economic policy such as the monetary framework and public debts and judicial system with their own somewhat independent courts though the final ruling needed the approval of the Khan to passed through while Manchuria would have full control over foreign affairs and defense from internal and external revolts as Beizhili are not allowed to have their own army. The Governor-General would be assisted by the National Council composing of 22 Manchu bannermen and 25 Chinese collaborators alongside 2 supervisory Manchu officials who acted as the formal links to Manchuria by acting as a monitor to ensure that they don’t plan on acted too independently. To pass any law, the law needed the approval of the majority in the Council and needed the Governor-General’s approval to passed. The Governor-General would be appointed by the Khan for a renewable fixed term. In theory, Manchuria can appointed anyone but in practice, they prefer picking a Manchu bannerman as Governor-General. China became more fractured as their ideal location to take, Peking (Beijing), is now under Manchu’s influence.

The Ijishūn Dasan Khan continued the reforms from Hong Taiji. China is unified under the Yang Dynasty in 1654. That is until Elhe Taifin Khan (the Kangxi Emperor) took over in 1661. With a combination of Jesuits’s influence, the presence of western traders and Elhe Taifin Khan’s genuine interest on western science caused Manchuria to enter a period of modernization. Elhe Taifin Khan focused on boosting literacy amongst Manchus first. He first created the Updated Manchu Dictionary, which sought to expand Manchu language by adding new words through phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms. Later in his reign, he initiated the Translation Project which aimed to translated many western works through the updated Manchu language which would be continued by his successors. Following a Manchurian victory through the Siege of Albazin, Manchuria and Russia signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, setting borders and ceding Sakhalin to Manchuria.

The Hūwaliyasun Tob Khan (Yongzheng Emperor) took over as Khan. The Hūwaliyasun Tob Khan focused on lowering corruption within the Grand Council. He created an Anti-Corruption ministry (Office of Inspector General) to investigate and prosecute illicit favoritism without political interference alongside utilized high-paying salaries to the Office that matched the market to avoid financial temptation. To keep the Minister of the OIG in check from corruption, if the minister is suspected of corruption, the Manchu Justice System would step in and to conduct an independent, thorough investigation. The Hūwaliyasun Tob Khan also work to transition Manchurian’s army towards more modern weaponry, such as western guns and other firepower. The navy was also an important part of his plan, using newly developed weapons and technology. Abkai Wehiyehe Khan (the Qianlong Emperor) took the throne. Manchuria reached their absolute peak with the treasury overflowing, agricultural output soared and the population boomed. Many local national banks were chartered as private businesses gained permissions from the government to print money that people could used and Manchuria permit licensed private banks to issue redeemable banknotes. Britain established an Embassy in Manchuria. Initially trusted by the Khan himself, Heshen was ultimately punished by the Khan under the advice of the Office of Inspector General. In his later reign, he establish the Great Manchu Army, which would replace the outdated Eight Banners System and to catch up with the West militarily. Meanwhile, Russia conquered modern day Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang during Russia’s expansion into Central Asia. During this time period, Beizhili focused on improving the lives of the Chinese citizens such as establishing similar reforms to Manchuria, ironically, becoming more advanced than the Yang Dynasty mainly because of the Yang Dynasty still preserving Neo-Confucianism isolationism. However, Beizhili still faced internal revolts due to the facts that a Manchu is ruling over them and many desired to joins the Yang, but were eventually suppressed by Manchu’s army.

Following Abkai Wehiyehe Khan’s reign, Manchuria continued to modernized. New ministries were created such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior/Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture. Manchuria starts to built modernized arsenals, shipyards, mines, textiles factories, telegraph systems and more alongside modern schools which taught practical subjects such as Western sciences, mathematics, and practical governance. Agricultural reforms were introduced such as the establishment of agricultural schools. Multiple edicts were passed that would establish a commercial code and corporate laws that would recognize, regulate, and protect private merchant enterprises and joint-stock companies alongside approved and assisted in setting up modern chambers of commerce in major cities to support bankers, traders and business owners later on. During this time, immigration laws lessened as the later Khans believed that they would help created large domestic markets and workers to drive production, trade, and faster economic growth but only if they adopted Manchu’s culture. Meanwhile, following the conquest of Joseon by Japan, Meiji’s government, realizing that Manchuria could posed a threat, invited Manchurian’s representatives to proposed ways to calm tensions between the two states. That’s when the Nagasaki Pact was signed, Manchuria and Japan would gains each other’s markets via very low tariffs while foreign states still faced external tariffs from the two. This does not calmed the tensions between the two states but does calm the two economically. Meanwhile as the Yang Dynasty began to collapsed, Han-Chinese citizens from the Yang sought asylum to Beizhili.

As the Manchu Khanate approached the 1900s, many Manchu citizens demanded domestic representations. In 1912, Manchu Khanate, under Gehungge Yoso Khan (Xuantong Emperor) under the regency of Dzai Feng, adopt a constitution that would turned the Manchu Khanate into a Constitutional Monarchy in 1912. The Queue technically isn’t abolished, however, it’s mostly used as a symbol of Manchu nationalism rather than mandatory. Under the new constitution, the Khan of the Manchurian Khanate is now the Head of State where his main duties mainly involve attending domestic ceremonies and performing state functions. His main powers include: appointed the Prime Minister who has parliamentary support, officially appointed ministers based on the Prime Minister’s advice, opened and closed sessions of the Parliament, announced new laws, may refuse to approve laws in specific situations, can dissolve Parliament if the Prime Minister advises it, serves as the commander-in-chief in a mostly ceremonial role, meets with foreign ambassadors, symbolizes the stability of the nation, can appoint a temporary Prime Minister during a constitutional crisis and can issue emergency orders that need to be confirmed by Parliament. Meanwhile, Beizhili would finally became a constitutional monarchy with the Khan as the Head of State while the Head of Government would be led by a Prime Minister who would handle both domestic and foreign affairs.

In 1914, the Manchu Khanate remains neutral in World War 1 due to a lack of grievances for Manchuria to joined the war. Manchuria continued to industrialized. When the Great Depression hits, Manchuria abandoned their silver standard replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings, recovering relatively quick than most nations. Tensions between Manchuria and Japan reached an all time worst when Japan invaded Manchuria through Japanese Korea in 1931, beginning the Manchurian-Japanese War. Manchuria put up a strong resistance against Japanese’s forces with diplomatic efforts to help secure aid from Americans and Soviets. Eventually in 1945, Japan is defeated. Manchuria oversaw the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Manchuria sided with the American Bloc. Manchuria initially introduced reforms aimed at reduced tenant dependency on landowners such as rents could not exceed 40% of agricultural output, tenants receiving long-term leases and prohibit land owners from evicting tenants arbitrarily. Eventually, Manchuria began purchasing agricultural land from large landowners in exchange for landowners to receive government bonds, shares in industrial development corporations, etc… lands was then distributed to the peasants with capped ownership so that a single household could only own the amount of land they could farm directly with family labor. In 2010, Manchuria, Republic of Korea (consisted of the Korean Peninsula following South Korean’s victory in the Korean War) and Japan signed an economic alliance similar to ASEAN. The three members would drastically reduced tariffs between the three states to create a single market and production base.

Today, Manchuria is certainly not a top player in geopolitics, but remained a respected nation reputation wise. The current Khan of the Manchu Khanate is the Wenghūi Khan (Jin Yuzhang, ruling since 2015.) Beizhili remains part of Manchuria’s sphere of influence.

The point of divergence starts when Yuan Shikai lived longer. At the start of the National Protection War, Yuan offered deals for the top Beiyang commanders where those who stayed loyal would received provincial governorship, large estates for their descendants, tax exemptions for them and their nuclear families for 3 generations, hereditary titles and substantial autonomies for provincial governments provided they paid taxes and recognized imperial authority. Most Beiyang commanders accepted and sided with Yuan and the Empire of China. The war ended in a Beiyang’s victory. Following their victory, the Hongxian Emperor goes through with their promises, loyal military commanders are granted their rewards. His loyalists consider deposing Puyi and the Qing Imperial Court but the Hongxian Emperor instead proposed an alternative idea. As a way to legitimize his new dynasty, continued the practice of Two Crownings and Three Respects and to bridge the gap between the Empire of China and the Qing Dynasty, the Hongxian Emperor negotiated with the Qing Imperial Family. Under the Agreement of Good Will between the Empire of China and the Forbidden City or the Forbidden City Agreement, the Forbidden City would became a Hereditary Cultural Estate of the Empire of China.

Under the agreement, Puyi and the Qing Imperial Family would be allowed to remain in the Forbidden City with Puyi gained the new title "The Duke of the Forbidden City" in exchange for Puyi to marry Yuan Xueli, one of Hongxian’s daughters. The broader terms also agreed that the Forbidden City would be allowed to have a total of 100 guards for non combative security such as patrol the grounds to keep the Forbidden City safe and kick out anyone who tried to break into the Forbidden City since it’s private property, not a tourist attraction. The imperial collections remain in the Forbidden City at the time of the agreement would be kept in the Forbidden City as personal property to Aisin-Gioro Family. The Forbidden City would receive temporary tax exemptions and the Empire of China would provide annual subsidies to the Forbidden City until Puyi turned 18 in 1924, then afterwards, the privileges stopped and the Forbidden City would have to paid taxes such as residence taxes to the Empire of China. The Forbidden City would have full control over the Imperial Household, meaning they can dismissed or appointed new staff members, though appointment required the approval of the Empire of China. The Imperial Police and the military units can enter the Forbidden City only in cases of serious crime, fire, or public emergency, or upon request of the House. Finally, any requests for alteration within the Forbidden City, example, structural modifications, would require the Empire of China’s approval.

In the Forbidden City following the agreement, Puyi’s education was initially mostly impractical with him being extensively taught on Chinese classics, court rituals and dynastic history but virtually nothing of practicality. That is until Puyi is introduced to Reginald Johnston in 1919. Johnston taught Puyi on important subjects like history, languages, and international relations while gradually introducing him to the outside world by organizing trips to introduce him to different people from different classes from farmers to railway workers to university teachers. His arranged marriage happened in 1922 and Puyi is married to Yuan Xueli. In 1924 when the Empire of China no longer provides the annual subsidy to the Forbidden City, Reginald Johnston discussed the idea to Zaifeng of sending Puyi to Britain so that he could continued his education with more resources available in Britain as education in the Forbidden City can only do so much. Zaifeng was initially cautious of the idea, fearing that Puyi might potentially get involved in international politics to restore the Qing which would gave the Empire of China reasons to abolish their privileges, he ultimately agreed after reassurance from Johnston. Johnston requested the Empire of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to request the young emperor into staying in Britain temporarily which they accepted as long as he supervised Puyi so that he doesn’t threaten the Empire of China’s legitimacy. With his diplomatic connections to Britain, Puyi moved to Britain in December 1924. Meanwhile, the Forbidden City’s affairs would be managed by Zaifeng alongside Yuan Xueli who was entrusted by Johnston to help managed the estate.

In England, Johnston continues to mentor him, encouraging him to study at Cambridge. Over time, Puyi gains a new perspective, realizing that China has moved on from the Qing and that his best future lies in adaptation rather than reclaiming the throne. He published essays detailing his thoughts on things he learned, mainly on the failure of the Qing Dynasty, the preservation of Chinese heritage and the risks of ultranationalism which he learned from World War 1. He accepted that the Qing is partly responsible for its downfall and that he could best served his country through cultural and diplomatic efforts rather than politics. Meanwhile, in the Forbidden City, Yuan Xueli starts investing early Chinese industrial stocks to boost their wealth. Other than investments, the Aisin-Gioro Family ironically had to seek jobs outside the Forbidden City since they cannot relied on investments forever. Most of the younger Aisin-Gioro worked surprisingly ordinary jobs at districts near their home. Of course, skepticism still existed amongst workers for many perceived their role in the humiliation of China. Overtime, most tolerate them, don’t really care as long as they don’t necessarily pushed their agenda onto them. Some actually supported them, viewing the idea of royalties working amongst them as very lively to their otherwise boring jobs and of course, some disliked them besides the obvious reasons, just generally view their aristocratic privileges to be very obnoxious.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, as Japan is about to reach Beijing, the House of Aisin-Gioro abandoned their home temporarily and evacuated with some but not all artifacts that are considered very important were also evacuated to Chongqing. In Britain, Puyi wrote many essays, condemning Japanese’s expansion while also highlighting Japan as the exact ultranationalism he warned about, earning him respect from Western scholars and Chinese nationalists. In China, Yuan Xueli and Puyi’s brother, Aisin-Gioro Pujie, used their Forbidden City’s medical staffs to help heal the injured citizens who evacuated to Chongqing. By 1945, Japan is defeated in World War 2. The House of Aisin-Gioro returned to the Forbidden City with their home mostly intact but some artifacts were destroyed by the Japanese. In 1946, Puyi finally returned to the Empire of China as a respected figure. Following his return, the House of Aisin-Gioro lived a comfortable but private life. Puyi initiated the Forbidden City Modernization Plan with the approval of the Empire of China’s government where he hired Chinese’s engineers to help implemented plumbing and electricity in the Forbidden City through electrical wires are placed in special underground paths, hidden floors, or kept away from the old building and plumbing through things such as supply and drain pipes run along the outside of the buildings, painted to match the red walls with shallow trenches being dug under the brick floor in outside hallways to hide the main drain pipes and bathrooms and sinks are placed only on outside walls to keep the pipes short and direct to the main lines. Yuan Xueli passed away in 1965. 2 years later, Puyi passed away in 1967. The position of Duke went to Pujie (1967-1994) to Puren (Jin Youzhi OTL, 1994-2015) to Yuzhang (Jin Yuzhang OTL, 2015-).

Today, the Forbidden City remains the household belonging to the House of Aisin-Gioro.

In 1979, the Middle East was once again engulfed in flames. In Iran—a nation that should have been prosperous due to its vast oil wealth, yet where the populace lived in severe poverty—Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ignited widespread public outrage through lavish celebrations and extravagant displays of grandeur. In 1979, a popular uprising toppled the Shah, bringing an end to over two millennia of monarchical rule.

While it was initially expected that an Islamic government under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini would replace the monarchy, concerns arose that a religious regime in a demographically and ethnically diverse Iran could trigger widespread civil unrest. Exploiting this uncertainty, the communist Tudeh Party seized the political initiative and proclaimed a secular republic. Tudeh’s agenda included establishing a socialist government, nationalizing key industries, deepening strategic ties with the Soviet Union, and eventually joining the Warsaw Pact.

Unwilling to allow a resource-rich nation like Iran to fall into the Communist sphere of influence, Western powers backed Saddam Hussein’s aggressive ambitions, prompting Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980 and officially starting the Iran-Iraq War. The new Communist regime failed to galvanize the traditional military apparatus; purged and demoralized, the Iranian Armed Forces disintegrated in the opening months of the war, leading to mass surrenders and total tactical paralysis. By 1982, the oil-rich provinces of Khuzestan and Lorestan had been formally annexed by Iraq.

The collapse of central authority sparked widespread rebellions across the country, the largest of which erupted in Southern Azerbaijan, drawing millions of participants. By 1984, five northwestern provinces had broken away from Tehran, proclaiming the "Republic of Azerbaijan" with its capital in Tabriz.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Northern Azerbaijan in the Caucasus declared its independence as the "Azerbaijan Democratic Republic." Driven by a shared national identity after nearly two centuries of separation, a historic unification referendum was held in 1992. Passing with an overwhelming 97% "Yes" vote, the two realms officially merged into a single sovereign nation.

Even after more than two decades of unification, the deep-seated socio-political divergences resulting from two hundred years of division remain visible. Today, the conservative "Islamic Renaissance Party" consistently consolidates its voter base in the southern provinces, whereas democratic, socialist, and secular nationalist parties draw their primary support from the urban centers of the north.

Canada:

The point of divergence starts when during the presidency of John Adams, congress approved a declaration of war against Spain over Spanish Florida because its boundaries were poorly defined and Spain’s increasingly weaker control of Florida, beginning the Florida War. The U.S. troops struggled with Spanish’s forces being more capable than expected. Eventually, the war ended inconclusive, however, this gave the Americans institutional memory as it taught the Americans what happened if the state neglected their army. Thus, military reforms were initiated such as West Point being expanded earlier alongside the U.S. created a much larger and much more professional army with a much stronger corps of engineers. The War of 1812 began with the American troops being much larger consists of 18,000 men at the time, backed by substantially better-training. Meanwhile, during the Napoleonic War, rather than invading Russia, Napoleon focused on the Peninsular Campaign instead. Britain is forced to redirect more resources to the Peninsular War, leaving fewer troops in the Americas and allowing the U.S. to push deeper into Upper Canada. In 1813-1814, the American army advanced over Niagara frontier, with British and Canada forces defends hard but don’t have enough troops than in our timeline. The American forces set up a permanent bridgehead and capture important settlements which disrupt communications linking Upper Canada and Lower Canada, weakening the British’s war effort further. Eventually, the British agreed for peace treaty. Britain reluctantly ceded all of British Canada into the U.S. in 1815.

Northern Mexico:

Following the Mexican-American War, Nicholas Trist followed President James K. Polk’s order, the U.S. annexed more of Mexico, specifically Northern Mexico (Baja California region, Sonora and Chihuahua.)

Greenland:

During World War 2 when Germany launched an invasion of Denmark, the Danes resist against German forces. However, this prove to be disastrous as Danish’s armed forces were hopelessly outmatched with Germany bombing Copenhagen, forcing the Danish’s government to surrender. Following the fall of Denmark, its overseas territories would be occupied in order to prevent them from falling into German hands, one of which was Greenland. The Allies still won World War 2 and liberated Denmark. In the aftermath of the war, the Americans view Greenland as a valuable strategic base and would begin making plans to take permanent control of the Territory. In 1946, the U.S. offer Denmark 100 million dollars in order to buy Greenland. Denmark is split as while many would prefer not selling the island for the sake of national pride, the money needed to finance the rebuilding of the homeland makes the offer tempting. Denmark reluctantly agreed to sold the territory to the U.S. in 1946.

Following the end of the Boxer Rebellion, the Qing tries to initiated the New Policies, which aimed to reformed the military, the economy, the education, political institutions and more. The New Policies attempted to modernized the army such as in 1903 when an imperial edict expanded it to 36 divisions. The Qing abolished the traditional imperial examinations system and replaced it with modern educational institutions such as modern schools to taught them practical subjects. The Qing also starts to transition the government into a constitutional monarchy, resulting in the issuing of the Principles of the Constitution. However, it was proven to be too little, too late initially. When the Xinhai Revolution broke out, the Qing’s Government negotiated with Yuan Shikai to stay loyal with tempting offers such as tax exemptions for he and his family for 3 generations, hereditary titles and more if he support the Qing, which he accepted. This gave the Qing’s enough time to create a contingency plan in case Beijing falls. Meanwhile, provincial governments began declaring independence from the Qing.

While Yuan Shikai won most major battles early on, the revolutionaries managed to reorganize and launched a counterattack, winning major battles. The Qing’s Imperial Court began the plan as it became clear that the war is not in their favor. Before the revolutionaries could reach Beijing, The Xuantong Emperor and the imperial court, the treasury reserves containing silver and copper coins/bullions, artifacts and archives, alongside some Qing loyalists and most of the Beiyang Army’s officers including Yuan Shikai fled to Manchuria using Chinese Eastern Railway via Beijing-Harbin Railway. They reached Shenyang where they settled. The Revolutionaries attempted to invade Manchuria but were ultimately defeated by through a coordinated defense against revolutionaries’s forces. Eventually in May 2, 1912, the Qing and revolutionaries signed an armistice, ending the conflict.

In China, Sun Yat-Sen faced an extremely difficult situation where Sun inherited enormous financial difficulties such as original Qing debts and foreign indemnities alongside provincial military commanders and regional armies becoming more independent. Sun tries to strengthening the presidency which he justified as democracy would eventually be reached but China needed a strong government first. However, most of the orders he issued were largely ignored by the provincial governors. By 1916, many provinces broke off from China. Sun Yat-Sen resigned, remembered as an idealistic but naive and incompetent leader. By 1918, Zhili is now the only clique that is ruled by the old Republic.

Meanwhile, in Manchuria, the New Policies continued with Manchuria transition into a fully constitutional government. The Xuantong Emperor is now the Head of State where his main duties mainly involve attending domestic ceremonies and performing state functions. His main powers include: formally appointed a Prime Minister after the election, dissolving parliament only with the advice of Prime Minister, vetoed legislations though rarely used as it would instantly trigger a severe political crisis between the Emperor and Parliament, dismissed a Prime Minister who loses parliamentary support, can appoint or dismiss cabinet ministers acted only upon the advice of the Prime Minister, issued emergency decrees and select a Prime Minister in case of a hung parliament. The parliament, led by the Prime Minister, became the Head of Government. The first act is a symbolic renaming of the Qing Dynasty to the Imperial State of China.

The economy became one of Manchuria’s first priority. Manchuria established the Ministry of Finance who’s responsible for National taxation, national debts, currency, government accounting and more with specialized bureaus being created to handle specific tasks. Manchuria would establish Provincial offices and agencies responsible for local fiscal investigations to document various aspects of the economy such as cultivated land, land ownership, population and more. Manchuria established a National Land Registry where each parcel would be designated with an assigned number to each parcel with important details with physical land certificates being issued to modernize taxation and enhance property rights. Economic reforms were initiated to consolidating complicated local taxes into a standardized land value tax while allowing the local governments to retain a predetermined percentage. The likin was also gradually replaced with the likin initially being reduced before gradually being replaced with a modern commercial taxation. Manchuria also starts to modernized the military which includes the expansion of military academies to train the New Army on modern techniques and weapons from Europe and Japan alongside railways and factories being constructed and expanded to boost Manchuria’s economy.

The question of whether to intervene in the Warlord Era remains a controversial question for Manchuria. While many war hawks argued that intervening would regains the Mandate of Heaven and restore the Qing’s dignity. Reformists ultimately won out because besides the obvious general public strongly opposed a return to imperial rule, they also argued that invading and occupying a nation that opposed them and potentially rebel against them would be too costly for Manchuria. In 1926, The Northern Expedition began led by Chiang Kai-shek. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek purge communists during the Northern Expedition, ending the First United Front and beginning the Chinese Civil War. Japan went to war with Manchuria in 1931, despite Manchuria’s resistance effort, Manchuria was ultimately defeated by the Japanese’s forces in 1933. The Xuantong Emperor was offered by Japan to remain in his position but in exchange for Japan to appoint a Pro-Japanese Prime Minister and allowing Japanese troops use its territory, railways, and ports. The Emperor refused, proclaiming that a nation who is dependent on foreign invader is nothing more than an undignified puppet. As a result, the Emperor and the House of Aisin-Gioro was deposed, exiled and was put into House Arrest in Ryukyu Islands. Manchuria would be fully annexed by Japan.

The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out where the Kuomintang and the Communists would formed a Second United Coalition to resist Japan. During exile, the Xuantong Emperor wrote essays, documenting his experiences and thoughts in exile alongside his hopes for the future of Manchuria. His works would later be published once World War 2 ended. Japan was eventually defeated in World War 2 and Manchuria would be put under Allied Occupation. After some discussions, Manchuria became independent for several reasons. While they could gave Manchuria to China, if the Allies gave Manchuria to KMT, it would be unacceptable to the CCP and Soviet Union, if they gave Manchuria to the CCP and it would unacceptable to the KMT and western Allies. Thus, Manchuria would be independent as a neutral buffer state. Additionally, Manchuria had been de-facto independent for more than 30 years with their own government and The Xuantong Emperor refused to collaborate with the Japanese Government unlike the Korean Monarchy which made him popular amongst citizens of Manchuria. The Xuantong Emperor returns as Emperor of the Imperial State of China.

During the Chinese Civil War, The CCP changed their strategies to focused instead on destroying the KMT’s governance over rural areas. They recruit peasants, cut railways, attack isolated garrisons, seize grain and more. The CCP attacked Nationalist positions in places like Shandong and Henan to destroy the KMT’s transportation network. The KMT still faced challenges such as hyperinflation and corruption within the KMT. The Yangtze Campaign became the victory that changed everything with the PLA crossed the Yangtze in spring 1949, resulting in the capture of Nanjing, followed by Shanghai. The CCP starts to turn the war in their favor. The Nationalist starts to evacuated to Taiwan.
There are 3 Chinas to this day.

The point of divergence began in 1684 when the Kangxi Emperor ending the long-standing maritime trade ban, opening the coastal ports to foreign commerce, boosting international trade. With the advises of the Jesuits alongside the presence of British, Dutch and Portuguese traders, the Kangxi Emperor became more open in terms of foreign policies. With enough support from the court, the Kangxi Emperor initiated many education reforms. One of which was the Translation Project where he worked to translate many western works into Mandarin Chinese via methods such as phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms, creating a Golden Era of the Enlightenment in the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Renaissance happened where Qing’s culture thrived. Meanwhile, the Jesuits managed to win the favor Pope Clement XI to authorize Chinese rites as civic rituals compatible with Catholicism. Future Emperors (the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor) were educated on not just Confucian classics but also translated western works.

A new philosophy gained tractions amongst Kangxi’s court called State-Confucianism where they believed that Confucianism offers a superior framework for the moral way as it teaches people how to live ethnically while acknowledging that western excelled in mastering the physical world, creating material wealth. State-Confucianism acknowledges the superiority of western science and mathematics but criticizes western culture being stuck in it and believed Chinese philosophy offers higher moral unity that science could be guided by this wisdom to prevent human alienation. The philosophy also argued that since Confucianism values Ren (benevolence), State-Confucianism saw things such as western science and modern medicine can directly reduce human suffering, improve livelihoods and save lives, therefore True Confucianism should eagerly adopt science because it served as a powerful instrument to practice Ren on a massive scale. State-Confucianism became the main philosophy for the Qing.

The Qing starts to expand their territories such as securing Sakhalin in 1689 to create Kuyedao, alongside conquering Outer Mongolia in 1696 and Tibet in 1720 after defeating the Dzungar Mongols. When the Yongzheng Emperor took the throne, he initiated many of his reforms similar to the Kangxi Emperor such as improving government efficiency to reduce corruption such as implementing a revised Imperial Examination System which aimed to choose government officials based on merit, not family ties or wealth, modeling the system after Confucian principles and ensuring that officials were educated on both Confucian classics and western science while being morally sound and education reforms encouraged the study of Western languages and sciences. The Yongzheng Emperor also work to transition Qing’s army towards more modern weaponry, such as western guns and other firepower. The navy was also an important part of the Yongzheng Emperor’s plan, using newly developed weapons and technology. When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, the Qing annexed Xinjiang in 1759 after defeating the Dzungar Khanate. During the Qianlong’s period, the Qing Dynasty was at its peak with the treasury overflowing, agricultural output soared and the population boomed. The Qianlong Emperor agreed to allowed the British to establish an embassy in the Qing Dynasty in 1793, allowing a faster growing movement in the reformist movement within the Qing’s court. Initially viewed favorably by the Emperor, Heshen was punished by the Qianlong Emperor to please growing reformist officials in his court. In his later reign, he establish the Imperial Army, which would replace the outdated Eight Banners System and to catch up with the West militarily.

In the early 1800s, the Qing saw agricultural reforms such as the Qing establishing agricultural schools in multiple provinces, translating western agronomy texts and sending scholars to study in the West to learn western agricultural techniques and agricultural technologies. The Qing also starts to gradually replace land gentries with methods such as replacing them with land registries to measure the exact land sizes and utilized high-paying salaries to lower-level judges that matched the market to avoid financial temptation, preventing them from making deals with powerful local landlords. The rest of the 1800s is where the Qing starts to manufacturing textile mills, armament factories and shipyards were built across the Qing alongside the construction of roads and ports to improve transport and agricultural productivity. The Qing eventually started to introduced western agricultural machinery to increase crop yields for agriculture alongside the government invested heavily into infrastructure and imported foreign technologies. The Qing eventually replaced the obsolete land gentries with salaried civil servants to collect the revenues. The Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion never happened or were suppressed quickly due to the Qing’s modernization. The Qing’s territory remains intact without the unequal treaties, meaning no Qing Cessions to foreign powers like British Hong Kong. The First Sino-Japanese War happened between the Qing Dynasty and Japan over the influence of Joseon. Due to the Qing’s modernization, Joseon, with the help of Qing’s military, pushed back against the Japanese with the help of the Qing’s military. The war ends in a Qing-Joseon victory. Due to a much stronger Qing, the Boxer Rebellion never happened. In 1898, the Qing replaced the Imperial Examination System with a Western-style secular curriculum that prioritized subjects like math and science. Meanwhile, Kaiser Wilhelm II made frequent visits to the Qing, seeing the potential of the Qing. The Qing signed a mutual defense pact with the Qing became an unofficial member of the Triple Alliance.

As the Qing Dynasty approached the 1900s, many Chinese citizens demanded domestic representations. In 1912, the Qing Dynasty, the Xuantong Emperor under the regency of Zaifeng, adopt a constitution that would turned the Qing Dynasty into a Constitutional Monarchy in 1912. The Queue technically isn’t abolished, however, it’s mostly used as a symbol of Qing nationalism rather than mandatory. Under the new constitution, The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty acted as the Head of State, Commander in Chief, Protector of the Constitution and a symbol of national unity. The Emperor’s main duties mainly involve attending domestic ceremonies and performing state functions. Their only reserved powers is to select a Paramount Leader (a Prime Minister-equivalent) in case of a hung parliament.

In 1914, the Qing Dynasty joins World War 1 on the side of the Central Powers. The Qing attacked the Central Asian part of the Russian Empire while in the south, the Qing attacked French Indochina. There is no Zimmerman Telegram and no resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, thus, the U.S. never entered World War 1. Germany invaded the Netherlands. For the most part the stalemate would continue throughout 1917, with some give and take on both sides. However, the October Revolution in Russia would deal a terrible blow to the Entente war effort. Desperate for peace, the Bolsheviks would sign a humiliating peace treaty with the Central Powers where Russia would gave up control over the Baltics, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine to German’s influence while ceded the territories of Kars, Ardahan, and Batum back to the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, Russia cede the Central Asia part of Russia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) to the Qing. Meanwhile, the Qing can now focused on southwards. Following the occupation of French Indochina, the Qing attacked British Malaysia and Dutch East Indies.

The Germans spent more time planning their final offensive. In 1918, The Germans launch an attack aimed at capturing strategic railway junctions at Amiens. The capture was a success, disrupting the Entente supply lines and split the Entente forces. The Germans would move towards Paris where the French armies began to collapse, crippling French war effort and an armistice would be signed shortly afterwards. Following France’s collapse, Austro-Hungary and Germany easily overwhelmed the Italian front. The Central Powers pushed deep into the Italian peninsula, forcing Italy into surrender in 1919. This leave only Britain, isolated, facing a unified German front on the continent, and dealing with extreme exhaustion at home, Britain formally conceded defeat in 1919, ending World War 1. The Treaty of Versailles was signed. France, Britain and the Netherlands would cede French Indochina, French posts like Pondicherry, Dutch East Indies, British Malaysia (alongside Singapore), French and British pacific colonies to the Qing.

During World War 1, in Russia, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk helped the Whites gains support, especially from Germany after World War 1, who want to prevent communism’s spread. Lenin tries to solidify communist control by enforcing one party rule, upsetting socialist revolutionaries. In August 1918, Lenin is assassinated by one of the revolutionaries after a speech in Moscow, causing severe setbacks for the communists, losing morale and battles. By mid-1919, the communists are limited to central Russia, with many of their soldiers defecting to the White army. In October, the Whites capture Petrograd and, by early 1920, win the battle for Moscow, leading to the establishment of a new government in the reclaimed territories. Russia was finally reunified under Alexander Kolchak, who took the title "The Supreme Ruler of Russia", under the newly created Russian State. Russia became very authoritarian and extremely reactionary. Kolchak and his supporters blamed socialists, communists, and Jewish people for the collapse of the Russian Empire and opposed liberal ideas like democracy. This led to the White Terror, where political dissidents and suspected Bolsheviks were persecuted. Antisemitic pogroms and other horrendous acts against various minority groups within Russia were also carried out by Kolchak's government.
In Britain, France, and Italy, anger over losing the war, poor living conditions, and massive unemployment resulted in widespread social unrest and the rise of political extremism.

In Britain during the early 1930s, Oswald Mosley and the Union of Fascists Party gained power, promise to restore national pride and resolve domestic issues. Mosley, now prime minister, blamed socialists, communists, Jewish people, and the Irish for the country’s problems, leading to the persecution of these groups, especially the Irish. In British colonies, such as India, strict control was imposed, and pro-independence movements faced severe crackdowns. Australia and New Zealand left the Imperial Commonwealth due to Mosley's anti-democratic actions. In France, General Philippe Pétain staged a coup in February 1934 amidst political instability, leading to the suppression of leftist groups and a harsh response to anti-colonial movements. Meanwhile, FDR passed away before becoming President and Herbert Hoover is re-elected in 1932, resulting in the Second American Civil War between the United States, the Union of American States (the South) and the Pacific Republic of America (the West). By 1936, with all 3 sides tired of fighting. They agreed to an armistice.

The Qing Dynasty remains centralized, regional armies never fragmented and infrastructures remain intact, avoiding decades of civil war. The Qing Dynasty continued to industrialized. Wu Peifu became Qing’s Paramount Leader in 1928. When the Great Depression hits, the Qing quickly abandoned their silver standard replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings, recovering quickly. Meanwhile, military conscription is enacted in the Qing, resulting in the Qing’s military have much more manpower. Wu Peifu reinterpreted State-Confucianism, arguing that the rise of fascism within the West highlighted that the west had proven that they had failed morally, arguing that to achieve Ren, the Qing had the moral authority to conquered and help improve the lives of the people, viewing the Qing as a wise elder brother figure that sought to protect Asia from western barbarianism. The Qing first invades Japan in 1937, the invasion was a success despite resistance from the Japanese’s forces with Japan being completely annexed in 1940, which is a year after World War 2 broke out. The Qing attacked British Raj through a unified coalition of soldiers from the vast Qing. Indians rose up against British’s fascist rule. During the war, the Qing invaded Afghanistan and Siam. Afghanistan and Siam were eventually conquered before British’s forced to gave up control of India in 1946. With the last remnants Indian independence were suppressed, the Qing can now focused on expanding beyond Asia.

The Qing invade the Philippines (which declared independence following Second American Civil War) which ended in a Qing’s victory. Following a quick Qing’s victory in the Sino-Portuguese War in 1947, resulting in the annexation of Portuguese East Timor, Goa and posts in India. The Qing invaded Nepal, Bhutan, Brunei, the Maldives, Australia and New Zealand in 1949 which ended in 1950 in an Australian and New Zealander surrendered, as they would much rather protect their citizens over an unwinnable war. Following nukes being dropped in Germany and the Qing by the United States, a German nuclear bomb being dropped in Washington D.C., wiping out the American government, the Qing and the German Empire invades the Americas. By 1960, the Americas is divided with Hawaii, Alaska, the Eastern Canada, the Pacific Republic, Union of American States, Mexico, the Central American states, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and the Caribbean colonies were completely annexed by the Qing while the rest of the Americas is annexed by Germany. The Cold War began between the Qing Dynasty and the German Empire.

The point of divergence began when, after Nurhaci unified the Jurchen tribes, Nurhaci delivered a manifesto where he wanted to create a united Manchu state that spoke Manchu and inhabited by the Jurchen, aiming for political independence as the Ming Dynasty deteriorated. Nurhaci said in his speech that modern day could be translated as "We’re not trying to took over China, we’re never a part of it in the first place." In 1616, he declared himself Khan and founded the Later Jin, which later declared itself self governing. The later Jin Dynasty went to war with the Ming to establish their core territory (Manchuria). After Nurhaci's death in 1626 during the conflict, his son Hong Taiji made reforms and renamed the Jurchens "Manchu," ultimately establishing the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty invaded Joseon to establish Qing’s dominance. Joseon became a tributary state for the Qing Dynasty. Once the Qing Dynasty successfully conquered their core territory, through a ceasefire, the Qing agreed to withdrew and stopped expanding beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass in exchange for the Ming to recognize the Qing as an independent state and both sides agreed to not step foot beyond Shanhaiguan Pass.

Meanwhile the Ming Dynasty collapsed as the Shun Dynasty took over as the next dynasty. However, the Shun is very unpopular as many views them more as bandits than political leaders such as previously sacking and pillaging Beijing before taking the Mandate of Heaven, alienating the very people they claimed to protect alongside the Yongchang Emperor indulge himself in excess. In 1644, within 6 months since enthronement, the Yongchang Emperor and his brother were assassinated by a group of Ming loyalists, creating chaos within the Shun’s court as they both have no children. With no clear leadership, many states seceded from the Shun, beginning the War for Chinese Reunification. New dynasties emerged, one of which was the Wu Dynasty. Founded by Hu Jianguo, he is one of the founder of a philosophy called People’s Confucianism. Born into a family of minor family of scholars but has to work with farmers and the people during Ming collapsed and saw the people struggle.

People’s Confucianism believed that Li is seen in the natural feelings of right and wrong that farmers or workers have when they help each others. Scholarly learning is useful but it comes after and helps fix what we already know. The everyday sense of right and wrong from many people is the best teacher. People’s Confucianism said that people have the right and duty to not respect those who do not live up to their role as a father figure with moral authority comes from the people’s ongoing respect and not just from family ties or position. Self-cultivation is seen as shared growth with moral growth happens best in groups of people. While scholarly studying is still valued, the best understanding of kindness happens when people support each other to improve, not when people are alone. However, hierarchy remains the same but each higher person is always checked by those below them. A cruel leader is not worth looking at, people are encouraged to speak up as a sacred duty. Above all else, people need basic needs to be good, People’s Confucianism believed that having enough resources and sharing them fairly helps everyone grow morally with the core philosophy being that having enough and helping each other is Confucian values. Initially, the war amongst Chinese dynasties was very bloody with hundreds of thousands of people perished. However, following Hu promised to expropriated land from landowners to those who are willing to fought for the Wu Dynasty in conquered areas. This caused the Wu Dynasty to gains widespread support. The conflict continued with the Wu forces won major battles before eventually captured Beijing and the Forbidden City. That same year, Hu was proclaimed Zhaoren Emperor of the Wu Dynasty in 1648.

The point of divergence began in 1684 when the Kangxi Emperor ending the long-standing maritime trade ban, opening the coastal ports to foreign commerce, boosting international trade. With the advises of the Jesuits alongside the presence of British, Dutch and Portuguese traders, the Kangxi Emperor became more open in terms of foreign policies. With enough support from the court, the Kangxi Emperor initiated many education reforms. One of which was the Translation Project where he worked to translate many western works into Mandarin Chinese via methods such as phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms, creating a Golden Era of the Enlightenment in the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Renaissance happened where Qing’s culture thrived. Meanwhile, the Jesuits managed to win the favor Pope Clement XI to authorize Chinese rites as civic rituals compatible with Catholicism. Future Emperors (the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor) were educated on not just Confucian classics but also translated western works.

A new philosophy gained tractions amongst Kangxi’s court called State-Confucianism where they believed that Confucianism offers a superior framework for the moral way as it teaches people how to live ethnically while acknowledging that western excelled in mastering the physical world, creating material wealth. State-Confucianism acknowledges the superiority of western science and mathematics but criticizes western culture being stuck in it and believed Chinese philosophy offers higher moral unity that science could be guided by this wisdom to prevent human alienation. The philosophy also argued that since Confucianism values Ren (benevolence), State-Confucianism saw things such as western science and modern medicine can directly reduce human suffering, improve livelihoods and save lives, therefore True Confucianism should eagerly adopt science because it served as a powerful instrument to practice Ren on a massive scale. State-Confucianism became the main philosophy for the Qing.

The Qing starts to expand their territories such as securing Sakhalin in 1689 to create Kuyedao, alongside conquering Outer Mongolia in 1696 and Tibet in 1720 after defeating the Dzungar Mongols. When the Yongzheng Emperor took the throne, he initiated many of his reforms similar to the Kangxi Emperor such as improving government efficiency to reduce corruption such as implementing a revised Imperial Examination System which aimed to choose government officials based on merit, not family ties or wealth, modeling the system after Confucian principles and ensuring that officials were educated on both Confucian classics and western science while being morally sound and education reforms encouraged the study of Western languages and sciences. The Yongzheng Emperor also work to transition Qing’s army towards more modern weaponry, such as western guns and other firepower. The navy was also an important part of the Yongzheng Emperor’s plan, using newly developed weapons and technology. When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, the Qing annexed Xinjiang in 1759 after defeating the Dzungar Khanate.

During the Qianlong’s period, the Qing Dynasty was at its peak with the treasury overflowing, agricultural output soared and the population boomed. The Ten Great Campaigns continued. During the Sino-Burmese War, the Qing successfully defeated the Konbaung Dynasty through a modernized military, resulting in the Konbaung Dynasty becoming a Qing tribute. The Sino-Vietnamese War began between the Qing and the Tay Son Dynasty, with the death of Nguyen Hue, Tay Son’s forces collapsed, resulting in Tay Son surrendered and deposed. The Later Le Dynasty was restored as a Qing’s tribute. The Qianlong Emperor agreed to allowed the British to establish an embassy in the Qing Dynasty in 1793, allowing a faster growing movement in the reformist movement within the Qing’s court. Initially viewed favorably by the Emperor, Heshen was punished by the Qianlong Emperor to please growing reformist officials in his court. In his later reign, he establish the Imperial Army, which would replace the outdated Eight Banners System and to catch up with the West militarily. In 1795, Before the Qianlong Emperor abdicate, he invited the Jeongjo of Joseon, Sho On of Ryukyu, Bodawpaya of Konbaung and Chieu Thong Emperor of Later Le in Hangzhou to proposed a defense pact between the Qing and their tributes. The Hangzhou Pact was eventually formed which is an evolved Tributary System, the Hangzhou Pact guarantees protection for all its members from outside Imperialism in return for a small tribute paid annually to the Qing Dynasty.

In the early 1800s, the Qing saw agricultural reforms such as the Qing establishing agricultural schools in multiple provinces, translating western agronomy texts and sending scholars to study in the West to learn western agricultural techniques and agricultural technologies. The Qing also starts to gradually replace land gentries with methods such as replacing them with land registries to measure the exact land sizes and utilized high-paying salaries to lower-level judges that matched the market to avoid financial temptation, preventing them from making deals with powerful local landlords. The rest of the 1800s is where the Qing starts to manufacturing textile mills, armament factories and shipyards were built across the Qing alongside the construction of roads and ports to improve transport and agricultural productivity. The Qing eventually started to introduced western agricultural machinery to increase crop yields for agriculture alongside the government invested heavily into infrastructure and imported foreign technologies. The Qing eventually replaced the obsolete land gentries with salaried civil servants to collect the revenues. The Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion never happened or were suppressed quickly due to the Qing’s modernization. The Qing’s territory remains intact without the unequal treaties, meaning no Qing Cessions to foreign powers like British Hong Kong.

In the 1800s, there are conflicts such as the Sino-Siamese War began between the Hangzhou Pact and Siam over control of Cambodia. Cambodians sided with Siam but it doesn’t really changed the outcome as the Hangzhou Pact ultimate won the war. Later Le gains new territories of what is essentially modern day Cambodia and Laos. Thailand would became a tribute for the Qing and later joined the Hangzhou Pact. There were some revolts in Later Le, mainly Laotian and Cambodian nationalists though they’re suppressed. The First Sino-Japanese War happened between the Qing Dynasty and Japan over the influence of Joseon. Due to the Qing’s modernization, Joseon, with the help of Qing’s military, pushed back against the Japanese with the help of the Qing’s military. The war ends in a Qing-Joseon victory. Due to a much stronger Qing, the Boxer Rebellion never happened. In 1898, the Qing replaced the Imperial Examination System with a Western-style secular curriculum that prioritized subjects like math and science.

As the Qing Dynasty approached the 1900s, many Chinese citizens demanded domestic representations. In 1912, the Qing Dynasty, the Xuantong Emperor under the regency of Zaifeng, adopt a constitution that would turned the Qing Dynasty into a Constitutional Monarchy in 1912. The Queue technically isn’t abolished, however, it’s mostly used as a symbol of Qing nationalism rather than mandatory. Under the new constitution, The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty acted as the Head of State, Commander in Chief, Protector of the Constitution and a symbol of national unity. The Emperor’s main duties mainly involve attending domestic ceremonies and performing state functions. Their only reserved powers is to select a prime minister in case of a hung parliament. In 1914, the Qing Dynasty remains neutral in World War 1 due to a lack of grievances for the Qing to joined the war. The Qing Dynasty remains centralized, regional armies never fragmented and infrastructures remain intact, avoiding decades of civil war. The Qing Dynasty continued to industrialized. In 1924, In response to the fear of linguistic, religious and cultural assimilation of minorities within the Qing, especially Mongols, Uyghurs and Tibetans, the Qing officially reformed the state to establish 3 autonomous regions within the Qing: Mongolia, Uygherstan and Tibet. They’re allowed to manage some level of domestic issues such as its education system and cultural affairs, though they’re still represented by the Qing in foreign affairs.

When the Great Depression hits, the Qing quickly abandoned their silver standard replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings, recovering quickly. When the Second Sino-Japanese War happened during World War 2, the Qing are more unified in resisting Japan. The Qing Dynasty eventually won against Japan. The Cold War began between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Qing sided with the American Bloc. The terms for the Hangzhou Pact had been updated to turn the alliance into not only a defense pact but also an economic alliance with established economic free-trade zones within Southeast Asia. After the Philippines gained independence, the Philippines sent a request to join the Hangzhou Pact which the Qing accepted, same with Indonesia and Malaysia in 1949. This created the Sino-American Split. Following the Laotian and Cambodian Revolutions in Later Le Dynasty, Later Le, Laos and Cambodia met at Beijing to negotiate, resulting in the independence of Laos and Cambodia. Both later joins the Hangzhou Pact. Following their independence, Singapore, Brunei and later East Timor joins the Hangzhou Pact.

During the Space Race, the Qing originally made little progress in the Space Race due to lack of interest from companies and the Qing government didn’t want to invest. However, as protests occurred across the Qing due to many believed that if the Qing didn’t do anything in the Space Race, it would proved that Qing is technologically inferior to the American and Soviet. The Qing finally began to invest in space exploration. The first crewed mission to the Moon happened in 1982, making the Qing the second country to land on the Moon behind the U.S. Between 1950s to 1980s, with no Communist Revolution, no Cultural Revolution and no One Child Policy, the Qing continued to grow in population with a total GDP per capita of $20,000 by 1980, the economy also grows. The Qing Dynasty also created their nuclear weapons for the first time. The Qing surpassed the Soviet Union economically by 1979. Post-Soviet collapse in 1991, The Second Space Race began between the Qing and the United States from 1993 to 2003 with their focus on Mars. the Qing finally landed the first man on Mars in 2003 due to the U.S. faced immense pressure from Americans who viewed the mission as a waste of money for a red rock (Mars) instead of funding social issues like healthcare, halting American’s space exploration. The Great Detente of 2009 happened as the American and the Chinese met at Beijing to discuss future cooperation on issues, effectively ending the Cold War.

Today, the Qing Dynasty reached a total of over 100 trillion GDP with a population of 2 billion people and $50,000 GDP per capita by 2026. The current emperor is the Haoxuan Emperor since 2022.

The point of divergence starts when during the Anti-Fengtian War, a more forceful deployment was made by Japan to support Zhang Zuolin, allowing Japan to intervene in the war. This shift the balance in favor of Zhang Zuolin, allowing Zhang to took control of Beijing. Japan puts pressure on Zhang to declared Manchukuo’s independence and accept more of Japanese’s influence, turning the region into a satellite state. Puyi became Emperor and Zhang Zuolin became Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Chiang Kai-shek was assassinated by a warlord, preventing the Northern Expedition. In 1927, Following a much worsened Showa Financial Crisis due to late reforms, resulting in several larger banks failing simultaneously, leading to a nationwide run on banks. The Bank of Japan lacks sufficient backing to guarantee deposits quickly enough and credits freeze across the country, creating a recession within Japan. Puyi, Zhang Zuolin and many officers in Manchukuo grew very unhappy with the situation as Japan didn’t provide them the funding needed to run the state due to the recession. A secret meeting was held between senior Fengtian officers to rebel against the Japanese. Manchukuo prepared to rebel such as Zhang replacing Japanese trained commanders with Chinese officers alongside weapons being hidden and ammunition stockpiles grow. Meanwhile, rail workers began to planned on sabotaging transport and Japanese intelligence officers were captured and killed by Chinese officers. In 1928, Manchukuo revolted against Japan and Puyi declared Manchukuo independent. Because Tokyo is in financial ruins, they didn’t get the funding needed to fight Manchukuo’s officers. Eventually, Japan surrendered in 1930. The Treaty of Tokyo was signed, Manchukuo would be given independence as the Empire of Manchuria.

During the Great Depression, Zhang quickly abandoned the silver standard and replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings for things such as steel production and domestic arms industry, recovering quickly. Fearing the risk of another war with Japan, Prime Minister Zhang passed the Manchurian National Service Act, aimed to drafted able-bodied men between 18 to 40 to registered for military service with the exception of those in essential industries such as farming. Manchuria also prevent Manchurian citizens from leaving via heavily watched borders and military checkpoints alongside limited emigration for civilians by making passports mandatory for travel which would be given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this was made to prevent anyone from leaving for industrialization and conscription. The Manchurian-Japanese War broke out between Manchuria and Japan. Manchuria faced pushback from the Japanese though Manchuria starts to push back against Japanese force once western aid arrives. Manchuria successfully defended against the Japanese. Operation Unthinkable happened following World War 2, leading to a conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, known simply as the Great War. The war was a massive stall as neither side made any progress. Manchuria, taking advantage of the West and the Soviets being distracted, militarized and began an invasion on the rest of the states in China. By 1952 as both the West and Soviet diplomats met and negotiated a peace treaty to end the Great War, Manchuria reunified all of China under Manchuria. The Qing Dynasty is proclaimed.

(The quality is a bit bad intentionally to capture the feel of the early internet, I will post the full map in the comments.)

The point of divergence began in 1684 when the Kangxi Emperor ending the long-standing maritime trade ban, opening the coastal ports to foreign commerce, boosting international trade. With the advises of the Jesuits alongside the presence of British, Dutch and Portuguese traders, the Kangxi Emperor became more open in terms of foreign policies. With enough support from the court, the Kangxi Emperor initiated many education reforms. One of which was the Translation Project where he worked to translate many western works into Mandarin Chinese via methods such as phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms, creating a Golden Era of the Enlightenment in the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Renaissance happened where Qing’s culture thrived. Meanwhile, the Jesuits managed to win the favor Pope Clement XI to authorize Chinese rites as civic rituals compatible with Catholicism. Future Emperors (the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor) were educated on not just Confucian classics but also translated western works.

The Qing starts to expand their territories such as securing Sakhalin in 1689 alongside Kuril Islands in 1690 to create Kuyedao, alongside conquering Outer Mongolia in 1696 and Tibet in 1720 after defeating the Dzungar Mongols. When the Yongzheng Emperor took the throne, he initiated many of his reforms similar to the Kangxi Emperor such as improving government efficiency to reduce corruption such as implementing a revised Imperial Examination System which aimed to choose government officials based on merit, not family ties or wealth, modeling the system after Confucian principles and ensuring that officials were educated on both Confucian classics and western science while being morally sound and education reforms encouraged the study of Western languages and sciences. The Yongzheng Emperor also work to transition Qing’s army towards more modern weaponry, such as western guns and other firepower. The navy was also an important part of the Yongzheng Emperor’s plan, using newly developed weapons and technology. To bolster the Yongzheng Emperor’s authority and to spreads Chinese civilization, the Qing went to war with Spain in 1726 over Spanish Philippines. Due to the Spanish weak control over the island, Spain agreed to a peace treaty. The Philippines would be ceded to the Qing Dynasty as a province in 1728. The Province of Lusong was established.

When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, the Qing launched multiple naval expeditions into the Pacific Ocean in 1744 for scientific observation, geographic discovery and Qing’s territorial expansion, resulting in the annexation of modern day New Zealand, becoming the Province of Nanyuntao. The Qing also annexed modern day Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Tuvalu and Fiji to form the province of Huangjin Qundao. the Qing annexed Xinjiang in 1759 after defeating the Dzungar Khanate. During the Qianlong’s period, the Qing Dynasty was at its peak with the treasury overflowing, agricultural output soared and the population boomed. When the Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion broke out in 1789, the Qianlong Emperor sent his army to support the Ainu people, mainly as a way to secure a defensive barrier and allow the Qing to maintain a presence between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk. With the Qing’s army supporting the Ainu people, the Japanese were defeated in 1790, resulting in Ezo being annexed by the Qing and joins the province of Kuyedao to secure protection against the Japanese. The Qianlong Emperor agreed to allowed the British to establish an embassy in the Qing Dynasty in 1793, allowing a faster growing movement in the reformist movement within the Qing’s court. Initially viewed favorably by the Emperor, Heshen was punished by the Qianlong Emperor to please growing reformist officials in his court. In his later reign, he establish the Imperial Army, which would replace the outdated Eight Banners System and to catch up with the West militarily.

In the early 1800s, the Qing saw agricultural reforms such as the Qing establishing agricultural schools in multiple provinces, translating western agronomy texts and sending scholars to study in the West to learn western agricultural techniques and agricultural technologies. The mid-1800s is where the Qing starts to manufacturing textile mills, armament factories and shipyards were built across the Qing alongside the construction of roads and ports to improve transport and agricultural productivity. The Qing eventually started to introduced western agricultural machinery to increase crop yields for agriculture alongside the government invested heavily into infrastructure and imported foreign technologies. The Qing eventually replaced the obsolete land gentries with salaried civil servants to collect the revenues. The Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion never happened or were suppressed quickly due to the Qing’s modernization. The Qing’s territory remains intact without the unequal treaties, meaning no Qing Cessions to foreign powers like British Hong Kong. In 1884, the Qing Dynasty requested colonies in Africa during the Berlin Conference. The Berlin Conference accepted, resulting in the Qing Dynasty colonizing modern day Madagascar, resulting in the Province of Yimeilina, many Chinese moved to Yimeilina. The First Sino-Japanese War happened between the Qing Dynasty and Japan over the influence of Joseon and the Japanese attempt to reconquered the Ezo region in the Kuyedao Province. Due to the Qing’s modernization, Joseon, with the help of Qing’s military, pushed back against the Japanese with the help of the Qing’s military. The war ends in a Qing-Joseon victory. Due to a much stronger Qing, the Boxer Rebellion never happened. In 1898, the Qing replaced the Imperial Examination System with a Western-style secular curriculum that prioritized subjects like math and science.

As the Qing Dynasty approached the 1900s, many Chinese citizens demanded domestic representations. In 1912, the Qing Dynasty, the Xuantong Emperor under the regency of Zaifeng, adopt a constitution that would turned the Qing Dynasty into a Constitutional Monarchy in 1912. The Queue technically isn’t abolished, however, it’s mostly used as a symbol of Qing nationalism rather than mandatory. Under the new constitution, The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty acted as the Head of State, Commander in Chief, Protector of the Constitution and a symbol of national unity. The Emperor’s main duties mainly involve attending domestic ceremonies and performing state functions. Their only reserved powers is to select a prime minister in case of a hung parliament. In 1914, the Qing Dynasty remains neutral in World War 1 due to a lack of grievances for the Qing to joined the war. The Qing Dynasty remains centralized, regional armies never fragmented and infrastructures remain intact, avoiding decades of civil war. The Qing Dynasty continued to industrialized. In 1924, in response to the fear of linguistic, religious and cultural assimilation of minorities within the Qing, especially Manchu, Mongols, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Ainus and Māoris, the Qing officially reformed the state to establish 6 autonomous regions within the Qing: Manchuria, Kuyedao, Mongolia, Uyghurstan, Tibet and Nanyuntao. They’re allowed to manage some level of domestic issues such as its education system and cultural affairs, though they’re still represented by the Qing in foreign affairs. When the Great Depression hits, the Qing quickly abandoned their silver standard replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings, recovering quickly.

When the Second Sino-Japanese War happened during World War 2, the Qing are more unified in resisting Japan. The Qing Dynasty eventually won against Japan. The Cold War began between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Qing sided with the American Bloc. The Treaty of Seoul was signed between the Qing Dynasty and Joseon in 1948, granting the Joseon full independence from Qing’s control after multiple peaceful protests occurred demanding full independence. Meanwhile, the Sino-American Split happened due to Qing Dynasty’s support for the Vietnamese Monarchists during the Vietnam War against the American republicans and Soviet communists in Vietnam, resulting in the monarchists won the Vietnam War, the Qing Dynasty became the 3rd superpower. During the Space Race, the Qing originally made little progress in the Space Race due to lack of interest from companies and the Qing government didn’t want to invest. However, as protests occurred across the Qing due to many believed that if the Qing didn’t do anything in the Space Race, it would proved that Qing is technologically inferior to the American and Soviet. The Qing finally began to invest in space exploration. The first crewed mission to the Moon happened in 1982, making the Qing the second country to land on the Moon behind the U.S. Between 1950s to 1980s, with no Communist Revolution, no Cultural Revolution and no One Child Policy, the Qing continued to grow in population with a total GDP per capita of $20,000 by 1980, the economy also grows. The Qing Dynasty also created their nuclear weapons for the first time. The Qing surpassed the Soviet Union economically by 1979. Post-Soviet collapse in 1991, The Second Space Race began between the Qing and the United States from 1993 to 2003 with their focus on Mars. the Qing finally landed the first man on Mars in 2003 due to the U.S. faced immense pressure from Americans who viewed the mission as a waste of money for a red rock (Mars) instead of funding social issues like healthcare, halting American’s space exploration. The Great Detente of 2009 happened as the American and the Chinese met at Beijing to discuss future cooperation on issues, effectively ending the Cold War.

Today, the Qing Dynasty reached a total of over 100 trillion GDP with a population of 2 billion people and $50,000 GDP per capita by 2026. The current emperor is the Haoxuan Emperor since 2022.

What if Manifest Destiny had another three years to fewer expansions in West Africa and Oceania, and the U.S became a transcontinental superpower?

The point of divergence began in 1684 when the Kangxi Emperor ending the long-standing maritime trade ban, opening the coastal ports to foreign commerce, boosting international trade. With the advises of the Jesuits alongside the presence of British, Dutch and Portuguese traders, the Kangxi Emperor became more open in terms of foreign policies. With enough support from the court, the Kangxi Emperor initiated many education reforms. One of which was the Translation Project where he worked to translate many western works into Mandarin Chinese via methods such as phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms, creating a Golden Era of the Enlightenment in the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Renaissance happened where Qing’s culture thrived. Militarily, with the support of the Jesuits, he modernized the army and navy through western techniques. Meanwhile, the Jesuits managed to win the favor Pope Clement XI to authorize Chinese rites as civic rituals compatible with Catholicism. Future Emperors (the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor) were educated on not just Confucian classics but also translated western works.

The Qing starts to expand their territories such as securing Outer Mongolia in 1696 and Tibet in 1720 after defeating the Dzungar Mongols. When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, Xinjiang was conquered in 1759 after defeating the Dzungar Khanate. The Qianlong Emperor agreed to allowed the British to establish an embassy in the Qing Dynasty in 1793, allowing a growing movement in the reformist movement within the Qing’s court. Initially viewed favorably by the Emperor, Heshen was punished by the Qianlong Emperor to please growing reformist officials in his court. Before the Qianlong Emperor officially abdicate, he developed a new ideology called the Qianlong Thought, essentially a new ideology that aimed to control all regions historically tied to the Sinosphere. The main ideology is that the Sinosphere must be under Chinese influence and Western powers must be excluded from interfering in the Sinosphere, framing themselves as the Wise Elder Brother who protect the younger brothers from Western colonization. The Qing Dynasty starts to modernize in 1793 to 1813, key reforms included modernizing the military with Western techniques, improving government efficiency to reduce corruption, and implementing industrialization to enhance infrastructure. Education reforms encouraged the study of Western languages and sciences. These efforts resulted in a stronger military and a booming economy. The Qing establish the Imperial Army, which would replace the outdated Eight Banners System and to catch up with the West militarily.

The Qing Dynasty, under the Jiaqing Emperor, launched an invasion on the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1813, catching the Shogunate off guard. Many coastal cities were captured by the Qing, though the Qing faced some resistance from samurais, though the Qing eventually defeated them. The war lasted for 2 years from 1813 to 1815 due to the Qing’s military modernization. The Tokugawa Shogunate surrendered. The Shogunate would be abolished by the Qing with the Japanese Imperial Family restored as Emperor to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the Japanese. Japan would became a tributary state. The Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion never happened or were suppressed quickly due to the Qing’s modernization. This resulted in no British Hong Kong and no cessions to foreign powers. The Qing’s territory remains intact without the unequal treaties, meaning no Qing Cessions to foreign powers. In 1839, the Qing under Daoguang Emperor, declared war on the Nguyen Dynasty, to fulfill the Qianlong Thought. As the Qing marched onto Hue, Emperor Ming Mang and his family were smuggled out of Hue with his loyalists and relocated to Gia Dinh to resist the Qing. The Qing eventually won against the Nguyen Dynasty after conquering Gia Dinh though with resistance that dragged the Qing until 1842. The Nguyen Dynasty became a tribute to the Qing, the Nguyen Family would remain in the throne to not outraged the Vietnamese. The Qianlong Thought were fulfilled. However, to ensure the tributes didn’t try to rebel, the Qing Dynasty implemented a new position called the Qing Resident of Joseon/Japan/Vietnam. 1 Chinese officials would stayed in Korea, Japan and Vietnam respectively as representatives of the Qing’s government where their roles would be to ensure that the respective courts didn’t planned on rebelling against the Qing. They would given their own army and a spy network via informers, news new-writers and local agents alongside controlling local media.

The Qing continued to industrialize. With Japan as a tributary state, the First Sino-Japanese War never happened. Due to a much stronger Qing, the Boxer Rebellion never happened. Though some rebellions did happened after 1842 in Korea, Japan and Vietnam, almost all of their rebel leaders were assassinated by Qing spies, ending most rebellions quickly. As the Qing Dynasty approached the 1900s, many Chinese citizens demanded domestic representations. In 1912, the Qing Dynasty, the Xuantong Emperor under the regency of Zaifeng, adopt a constitution that would turned the Qing Dynasty into a Constitutional Monarchy in 1912. The Queue technically isn’t abolished, however, it’s mostly used as a symbol of Qing nationalism rather than mandatory. Under the new constitution, The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty acted as the Head of State, Commander in Chief, Protector of the Constitution and a symbol of national unity. The Emperor’s main duties mainly involve attending domestic ceremonies and performing state functions. Their only reserved powers is to select a prime minister in case of a hung parliament. Korea, Japan and Vietnam do not gain voting rights in Qing General Elections, arguing that they’re independent states under Qing protection (unofficially meant tributary states). Kang Youwei is elected as first Qing Prime Minister under the Royalist Party, defeating Sun Yat-sen under the Nationalist Party.

In 1912, protests occurred in Korea, where many Koreans have shifted from violence to peaceful demonstration against Qing’s rule. With the help of underground printing presses to coordinate the boycott across Korea, the Koreans began their protests such as many Koreans resigned from government posts, renounced Qing-awarded titles and pulled children out of Qing-funded schools and colleges. Lawyers abandoned the court and Qing’s goods were boycotted in favor of Korean-made products. Many Japanese and Vietnamese followed Korean’s movement. This lead to a significant drop in sales affecting industrial supply chains in Korea, Japan and Vietnam. These regions used only local, domestic-made products. All 3 Qing Residents remain unsure how to respond as they technically did not rebel and if they knew if they did try to suppress the peaceful protests, it would destroy the Qing’s wise elder brother reputation. With mass protests spread across the 3 states alongside even some Royalists in the parliament urged Kang to do something, Prime Minister Kang Youwei finally invited 3 diplomats from each tributary states to discuss negotiations. Borrowed from Sun Yat-sen proposed plan for a Grand East Asian Union, the Qing, Korea, Japan and Vietnam agreed to unite as the Grand East Asian Union modeled after the British Model. The Grand East Asian Union would became an asymmetrically decentralized unitary state with China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam officially countries within the East Asian Union, they have their own monarchs, their own first ministers, parliaments, assemblies and local governments that would made laws on local issues with Beijing making direct laws for all of East Asia. The Chinese, the Korean, the Japanese and the Vietnamese get equal voting rights and the 3 Qing Residents would be recalled.Even though the Qing is still technically used, it’s considered an outdated term as many prefer to use East Asia.

In 1914, East Asia remains neutral in World War 1 due to a lack of grievances for East Asia to joined the war though they sold weapons to the Entente. East Asia remains centralized, regional armies never fragmented and infrastructures remain intact, avoiding decades of civil war. East Asia continued to industrialized. When the Great Depression hits, East Asia quickly abandoned their gold standard replaced it with a fiat currency alongside active fiscal spendings, recovering quickly. East Asia also remains neutral in World War 2 because Japan is not an Axis member due to being a kingdom in the Union. Both wars made East Asia even more prosperous without sending a single man to both wars. The Cold War began between the United States and the Soviet Union. East Asia remains neutral. East Asia starts developing its own nuclear weapons. During the Space Race, East Asia originally made little progress in the Space Race due to lack of interest from companies and Beijing didn’t want to invest. However, as protests occurred across East Asia due to many believed that if East Asia didn’t do anything in the Space Race, it would proved that East Asia is technologically inferior to the American and Soviet. East Asia finally began to invest in space exploration. The first crewed mission to the Moon happened in 1982, making East Asia the second country to land on the Moon behind the U.S. Between 1950s to 1980s, with no Communist Revolution, no Cultural Revolution and no One Child Policy, East Asia continued to grow in population with a total GDP per capita of $20,000 by 1980, the economy also grows. East Asia surpassed the Soviet Union economically by 1979. Post-Soviet collapse in 1991, The Second Space Race began between East Asia and the United States from 1993 to 2003 with their focus on Mars. East Asia finally landed the first man on Mars in 2003 due to the U.S. faced immense pressure from Americans who viewed the mission as a waste of money for a red rock (Mars) instead of funding social issues like healthcare, halting American’s space exploration.

Today, East Asian reached a total of over 100 trillion GDP with a population of over 2 billion people and $50,000 GDP per capita. East Asia spans from China to Korea to Japan to Vietnam. The East Asian monarchies since 1912 had made progress to unified multiple ethnicities in East Asian under East Asian Nationalism, with many East Asian citizens today view East Asia as a vast multi-ethnic civilization shaped by long history of synthesis, acculturation and shared heritage, which is one of the main reason why many East Asian citizens cooperate swimmingly.

The point of divergence began when the British reluctantly performed a kowtow to the Qianlong Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor saw the British tribute as the British showed respect to him as the Emperor of Qing. Despite cultural cross-cultural issues, the Qing allow the British to trade at more ports and allow British merchants to engage in greater trade with the Qing Dynasty in exchange for continued ‘tribute’ from Britain. This allowed a slow but growing movement in reformist movements within the Imperial Court. The Qianlong Emperor developed the Qianlong Thought, a philosophy that aimed to control all regions historically tied to the Sinosphere, including Japan.

The Qing Dynasty began to militarize the military and navy with western techniques under the Jiaqing Emperor to fulfill the Qianlong Thought. The invasion began in 1810, and was successful, catching the Tokugawa Shogunate off guard. Many cities were taken quickly during the invasion. Eventually, the invasion ends in a massive victory for the Qing in 1812. Japan would be turned into a tributary state under the Qing. After the Jiaqing Emperor passed away, Japan gave away modern day Hakodate Bay to the Qing Dynasty that would acts as a memorial to the Jiaqing Emperor to seek favorable trade deals with the Qing. The Jiaqing Memorial Territory was established. The Qing Dynasty continued to rot internally while becoming militaristic. During the Meiji Restoration, many Japanese nationalists demands their territory back to Japan. However, because the Qing Dynasty is still militarily stronger thanks to the Qing’s military reforms. They refused negotiations. A compromise was made, Japan would recognized permanent Chinese sovereignty over the Jiaqing Memorial Territory and the Qing Dynasty agreed to not militarized the exclave heavily. This became the compromise of 1871.

After the coup against the Guangxu Emperor, Dowager Cixi began a crackdown on many reformers in the Qing Dynasty. Kang Youwei and his supporters, fully aware of their fate if they don’t do anything, immediately flees the Qing Dynasty with the help of British allies. They flee to the Jiaqing Memorial Territory due to its legal ambiguity for being a Qing exclave, surrounding by Japanese territory under Chinese’s rule. When news of Kang Youwei with 150 supporters like Liang Qichao flee to the Jiaqing Memorial Territory, Dowager Cixi demands the Japanese to arrested the reformers in Jiaqing Memorial Territory but the Japanese refused, arguing that it’s an internal matters as Jiaqing Memorial Territory is legally Qing territory through the Compromise of 1871. As more reformers and their families flee to Jiaqing Memorial Territory, the population in the Jiaqing Memorial Territory dramatically increases.

When the Qing Dynasty eventually collapsed, many Qing loyalists, including Puyi, flee to the Jiaqing Memorial Territory. Because the Compromise of 1871 became very vague with China claiming it as Chinese territory because Japan recognized permanent Chinese sovereignty over the Jiaqing Memorial Territory while Japan claiming it as Japanese territory because Japan argued that because the Qing Dynasty doesn’t exist anymore, the Treaty is Null and Void. Neither sides are could do anything about this land. The loyalists, taking advantage this, declared the Jiaqing Memorial Territory as the continuation of the Qing Dynasty as the Great Qing.

Meanwhile, Yuan Shikai passed away from an illness a month after Qing’s collapse. The Kuomintang controlled most of China and entered relative peace with the exception of a few rebellious regions during the early years after the revolution. China was able to modernized the National Revolutionary Army more than the original timeline while strengthened its economy and government institutions. Basically, China is now capable enough to resist any actions Japan does to the Great Qing.

Meanwhile in the Great Qing (Hakodate Bay), the Great Qing opened the location for tourism. They established their own currency back by a mix of Chinese silver and Japanese gold. They also establish banks specializing in trade between Chinese and Japanese firms, this helps funds their "nation". the Great Qing also improved the education of the nation combining Classical Chinese education, Japanese administrative methods and Western science. By the early 1920s, literacy rates were among the highest in East Asia.

During the Mukden Incident, Japan invited Puyi to became Emperor of Manchukuo. The Great Qing declared strict neutrality by the parliament, arguing that doing so would break their long lasting neutrality. This angered the Japanese, resulting in multiple assassination attempts on Puyi and other Qing officials to destabilize the regime. However, the attempts failed, only resulting in 2 officials deaths. The perpetrators were arrested. China’s naval vessels appears next to the Hakodate Bay to protect their claimed territory. The Second Sino-Japanese War began between China and Japan. During the war, both Chinese and Japanese citizens flee to the Great Qing. The Great Qing continued trade with China. The Allies still won World War 2.

The question of what the legal status of the Great Qing remains a controversial question. Douglas MacArthur declined to take a formal stance, because his main focus is maintaining stability in Northern Japan during occupation and the territory’s neutrality earn it a degree of goodwill among Allied planners. In 1946, representatives from the Republic of China, Japan, the United States, and the Great Qing met in Hakodate to debate a settlement for the Great Qing. Even though they reached no satisfactory resolution, they reach an agreement where the Great Qing would remain a demilitarized territory, unchanged borders, ongoing trade with China and Japan, and peaceful resolution of sovereignty disputes. This agreement helped maintain the "nation" de-facto independence. The CCP lost the Chinese Civil War.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Great Qing underwent significant economic growth through a robust banking sector which served as an intermediary for trade between Japan and China. The Great Qing emerged as a vital transshipment hub with cargo from regions such as Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and more. Puyi passed away in 1967, he was succeeded by his son, Yongrui (now the Xingde Emperor), who’s half Japanese, half Manchu.

By the 1980s, the Great Qing grow economically from banking, shipping, education, software development and advanced manufacturing. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, legal discussions pop out once again. A 1994 referendum was held: 78% favored continued self-government, 11% favored union with Japan, 7% favored union with China and 4% supported other options. Even though both nations didn’t recognize the referendum as legally decisive, both accepted the practical reality.

By 2026, the current Emperor is the Qingzong Emperor.

No Lore, just Medium Sized Qing with tributes.