Chinese as Empire Builders?

[Raakone]

Now, many technologies in sailing and navigation were developed in China before Europe, include the ever-important compass.

Supposedly China would have been able to start their own empire, if they had been so inclined.

So...what if China set out East the way the Europeans went West in our TL? What would the results be, if places like the Nesias (Indo-, Mela-, Micro-, and Poly-) and South America were colonized by the Chinese?

~Ra'akone

[Hendryk]

I'm supposed to be working on it :o . Check out my TL titled "The Chinese discover America in 1435". I got to 1600, but at that point the butterflies start to seriously affect European history, and the task of rewriting the history of 17th-century Europe is so daunting I've been procrastinating.

[NFR]

Yep. I saw that one coming.