沒有國民黨就沒有中國, Without the Kuomintang there would be no China, A Republic of China Story

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Will China go towards a technocratic meritocracy which pretty much aligns well with Asian values
Or it could end up a democracy, but not really, since the economic bureaucrats and as you said, emphasis on technocrats will really control the moving parts of politics, just like it happened in Japan post-1945.
 
三十五, Macau
The Republic of China had done a good job of undoing China’s century of humiliation. Land had been returned to China and unequal treaties had ended. But the legacies of European imperialism remained. One such legacy was the Portuguese colony of Macau. Portugal had been in China long before any other European power. The Portuguese Presence in Macau went all the way back to the 16th century. Portugal was also the European power most committed to retaining it’s colonial holdings. The majority of the population there was Han Chinese. Similar to other parts of the Portuguese Empire, the natives did not have the same rights as the Portuguese. By the mid-20th century, the native population of Macau was losing its patience with Lisbon.

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(The ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral in Macau shows the Portuguese influence in the city)

The geopolitical situation had changed in a relatively short period of time, and it had not changed to Portugal’s advantage. Instead of a fractured nation, China was now a unified, rising power. In the event of a war, Portugal would not be able to do anything to stop China from quickly seizing the city. Thus, an uneasy peace continued, with the Portuguese colonial administrators understanding that China could swoop in at any moment. Fears of a Chinese invasion became more real when India took Goa. Despite this, China would not take Macau by force. Chiang Kai-shek wanted the transfer of power to be peaceful. China also had much more pressing concerns than Macau for most of his time in office.

Behind the scenes, China had agitators stirring up trouble in Macau (as well as Hong Kong). The Kuomintang was active in Macau, and membership in the Macau KMT grew exponentially in the years following the end of the Civil War. The KMT soon became the largest and most influential organization representing the Chinese population of the city. Occasionally, local Kuomintang activists would lead protests against the Portuguese governing authorities. Sometimes protests would turn into riots and would need to be put down by those authorities. In 1962, one such riot led to the death of two rioters by police. Relations between Chinese and Portuguese continued to sour. Local activists called for democratic elections. Knowing that elections would see the Portuguese minority heavily outvoted, the authorities would not budge.

As the 1960s went on, Chiang Kai-shek began to take more interest in Macau. Part of the reason for this is that he became increasingly worried about maintaining good public opinion. He sought to take advantage of the rising discontent within the Portuguese colony. In the Summer of 1964, the Chinese government funded activists in their efforts to organize reunification marches. These marches were accompanied by strikes and acts of civil disobedience. Governor António Lopes dos Santos declared the protests illegal, and the police began to arrest protesters. This caused even more unrest and violence between protestors and the police ensued.

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(António Lopes dos Santos)

All this time the government of China called upon the Portuguese colonial government to enter negotiations with the protesters. While Portugal initially rejected these offers, they soon changed their tune. China had increased its military presence in Guangdong Province, where soldiers under Dai Jitao were considered a threat even if Chiang Kai-shek’s official position was peaceful reunification. More importantly, China threatened to cut off food shipments into Macau, something the Macanese heavily relied on. Portugal clearly had to make a compromise. What was determined was that the government would negotiate with the protesters. The Chinese would have to be allowed to have a say in the city’s government. An assembly was formed.

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(Dai Jitao)

The Macanese assembly in 1964 consisted of Portuguese colonials along with local business and community leaders. The Portuguese opposed a transfer of Macau to China, while the majority of Chinese supported it. There was some opposition to reunification among the Chinese population, notably among the gambling magnates and some criminal elements. The Assembly would elect businessman Ho Yin as the first Premier of Macau. He was chosen because of he had good relations with both the Portuguese and the Chinese. While not a member of the Kuomintang, Ho was sympathetic to the KMT agenda. By 1965, the Macanese Assembly was effectively the government of Macau, with Lisbon essentially allowing the assembly to govern the city as it pleased. Later that year, Chiang Kai-shek visited Macau and met with Ho Yin, the de facto leader of the city. The two men discussed the plan for the transition of ownership of Macau from Portugal to China.

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(Ho Yin)
 
Everyone talks about Hong Kong in timelines where China's suffered from colonialism, not to mention OTL, but I don't think Macau ever really gets any focus. So, interesting look at it ITTL.
 
Stanley Ho man was the god father of Asia with 17 children and owned 19 of the 41 casinos in Macau he was the King Of Gambling he died in 2020 at age 98

I don’t know why I wrote this it just popped up and I wanted to share
I wonder if he’d be a little more… “connected” to certain “societies” in mainland China ITTL, if you know what I mean…
 
Everyone talks about Hong Kong in timelines where China's suffered from colonialism, not to mention OTL, but I don't think Macau ever really gets any focus. So, interesting look at it ITTL.
Yeah, there's a whole lot less information about people and events in Macau than Hong Kong during this time. I Googled "Macau Kuomintang" in both English and Chinese in order to find people who would be pro-Nanjing leaders in the city and I didn't get many results that had what I was looking for (there were some names of KMT people in Macau, but almost no information about them). Ho Yin OTL was sympathetic to the KMT at first but later supported the Communists (his Wikipedia picture is of him with Mao Zedong).

This article on Chinese Wikipedia is about people outside of the ROC who support the ROC. There's lots of people and groups in Hong Kong (including a link to a separate page). Macau is not mentioned once.

Also, if you put Chinese articles into Google translate you get some hilarious lines like this:

This article is about people who have a crush on the Republic of China. For those who have a favorable opinion of the People's Republic of China, see Pro-China faction .
 
三十六, The Republic of Vietnam
The Republic of Vietnam was born into chaos. It succeeded the short-lived State of Vietnam after the abolition of the monarchy. Its government was formed as part of a coalition of four separate anti-Communist political factions. The largest faction was the VNQDD. That party and the much smaller DVQDD would later join to form the Vietnam People’s Party. Nguyễn Tường Tam, the leader of the VNQDD, became the first President of Vietnam. Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of the Cần Lao Party, became the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Trình Minh Thế, who led a group of religious nationalists against both the French and the Viet Minh, was made Minister of War. The DVQDD was given various posts in the military and government as well.

From the beginning, the Vietnamese government faced two challenges. The first challenge was winning the war against Communist rebels. The second challenge was to win the support of the Vietnamese people. Nguyễn Tường Tam was concerned about being seen as a Chinese puppet. Chinese support for him was the reason that he was the leader of Vietnam. He hoped to make Vietnam into a self-reliant regional power in the future. The Vietnamese Army would sometimes launch attacks on the Viet Minh without Chinese support in order to show the Vietnamese people that Vietnamese soldiers were responsible for fighting Communists. These Vietnamese-led attacks on the Viet Minh were played up in the media. Any victory against the Viet Minh by a Vietnamese-led force would be brought to the attention of the nation and more times than not overexaggerated. Vietnam maintained good relations with China throughout all of this, and had diplomatic relations with all of the non-Communist world.

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(Vietnamese soldiers)

The Viet Minh insurgency consumed Vietnam during this period, overshadowing all other events. Viet Minh activity was strongest in the North and weakest in the South. China had expected the war to only last a few years, and that troops could be withdrawn soon. But by 1962 it was obvious that the conflict was going to be a long-term commitment. That same year saw a massive Chinese troop surge accompanied by renewed offensives across Northern Vietnam in cooperation with the Vietnamese Army. The Viet Minh was pushed out of some provinces. The Communists once again avoided pitched battles, employing hit-and-run tactics instead. Overall, the offensives were only moderately successful. The ROC Air Force conducted air strikes against Viet Minh positions, but this had the unfortunate side effect of killing Vietnamese civilians. This caused more and more Vietnamese people to hate the government for cooperating with China.

Though the internal conflict seemed to have no end in sight, the Vietnamese Army was mostly successful in pacifying the Southern part of the country. This meant that civilians there were relatively safe from the war, allowing for economic development in the region. Life in the North, especially outside Hanoi, remained chaotic. Vietnam was an unstable country, but it was one that had the sympathy and support of much of the world in its struggle against Communism (America was a big provider of foreign aid). Vietnam was a very poor country with an uncertain future. It was engulfed in civil war and dependent on foreign support. But it did at least seem like things were improving, albeit very slowly.
 
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