AHC: China interested in setting up overseas colonies

[spoonzandforkz]

Greetings. Born out of curiosity, like with many alternative history ideas and possibilities, I am intrigued as to the possibility of a Chinese colonial empire, since this would open up questions such as the following;

• Assuming Europe still goes colonizing as OTL, which is probable with, say, a POD in the 12th century, how might relations with a colonizing China affect Europe, and vice versa? Contact and wars with Europeans will keep Chinese warfare skills sharper and will temper China's self-convinced cultural superiority, and vice versa, with Europe being less convinced of it's own cultural superiority[1] as well with a large and powerful non-European colonizing great power around (Historically, the Chinese weren't viewed in a racist-y way before around the late 18th century, when they were starting to slip technologically wise behind the Europeans)

China was arguably the #1 candidate for world dominance / hegemony (population larger than all of Europe combined, unified and efficient bureaucracy if with low taxation)
but they didn't really manage to capitalize on this opportunity due to the fact they just didn't have much interest in expanding after sewing up the local neighborhood.

Now, this is totally understandable as states don't really function to compete for some arbitrary goal such as "world domination" (exceptions include the Macedonian Empire and Napoleonic France, but even so, they were more subject to the ambitions of the two men leading them, Alexander and Napoleon) since states are more a complex assortment of many interest and power groups competing for different goals, which are oftentimes contradictory to one another, and for most of Chinese history these goals didn't tend to include "colonial expansion" for a variety of reasons, such as, but not limited to;

• Partly ideological; a Sinocentric view of nothing of worth to be found outside of the "Middle Kingdom"
• Partly religious; the Buddhist-Confucist religious mix they had just did not really promote the idea of converting outsiders to the Faith (as in the case of Europe a primary motivating reason for colonialism, to show the light of Jesus' teachings to godless heathens everywhere) and, correct me if I am wrong, but Confucianism didn't tend to view merchants favorably
• Partly lack of economic motive; they were rich enough as is, why leave and explore new lands? (ties in with #1)

Now, this policy wasn't totally dumb (colonies aren't always profitable, and countries like Spain and Portugal aren't really richer for it) but this type of isolationism did lead them to getting bit back in the ass by the West and Japan in what is commonly known as the "Century of Humiliation".


Some ideas that might help establish a Chinese colonial empire of sorts (People with more historical knowledge may come in and chastise the plausibility of these)

• A different religion (say, a more pro-conversion Buddhist branch, Islam or Nestorian Christianity; the latter two, even if syncretized with China's local religious traditions, are inherently rather more conversion-prone and will tie China better to the global trade network moreso if it's Islam)
• A different conception of Sinocentrism arising from butterflies or whatever, say a universalist conception of a "civilizing mission" where China has a duty to expand to the edges of the Earth to bring civilization and Confucianism to "uncivilized barbarians"
• A regional divide, between, say, a Mongol North and a Chinese South, which spurs the southern dynasty to be more tied in with SE Asian affairs, and small foreign trade posts evolve into full-fledged colonies as time passes by
• some others, which y'all can suggest?

This will not solve the inherent economic self-sufficiency China which acts as a barrier to adopting a colonial policy, but to me, religion and ideology has always seemed the more important of the three, since one could really say the same for late colonial powers like Germany or Italy which didn't really have reasons for colonialism besides prestige and Keeping up with the Joneses.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Any critiques, if I have (most likely) made a mistake of some sorts?

[1] Which really only transformed into full-blown self-convinced biological superiority by the time the 19th century rolled around, and a strong non-European power may do better, if not entirely, butterflying the notions of scientific racism and Social Darwinism (I imagine the ATL Chinese will have their own versions of scientific racism as well, if like with Europe, watered down from OTL)