There were some moves towards that in the late Qing period, and a constitutional convention had been established with the goal of having the first elections in 1916. If the process had been begun earlier, or the Dowager Empress (who publically approved the idea of a constitutional monarchy in 1906 so appears to have been accepting if not open of the idea) had lived longer, that might be enough to establish a unified democracy, even if the Qing still fall.