I've seen Timelines about an Axis China, and I've seen threads discussing the overall pros and cons of Germany siding with one over the other.
But is there any way, any way at all, for Nazi Germany to end up with both as allies? Any possible way, even if it takes an extreme amount of luck or effort?
I have a few ideas on this, but I'm stupid so I don't know how feasible they are and would like to do some brainstorming. So far my ideas are:
1 - From the very beginning Germany heavily supports China over Japan, and it's known that if Japan goes too far, Germany will go to war to support China. Nevertheless Germany sees Japan as a good ally and wants to mediate.
2 - Subsequently, China is more industrialised and would be a harder target for Japan anyway than in OTL.
3 - Early discovery of oil in Russia.
4 - Germany actually works to cooperate, help, and coordinate with its allies, frequently trading techs and advisors and such.
Putting it all together I'm thinking it'd be possible for Germany to get Japan to back off China in order to expand and gain resources elsewhere. There are plenty of other countries that Germany and Japan agree are enemies or worth taking colonial possessions from, and Germany is a good ally to have. There'd also be more motivation for Japan to focus elsewhere to get oil and resources.
On the side of China, if it industrialises and modernises enough, it could perhaps try to grab pieces of Tibet, take Hong Kong, and other South/West Asian western colonial holdings (Germany would probably have an interesting time negotiating non-conflicting goals for Japan and China, but I think it could be done)
So, anybody else have any thoughts on this subject? Ideas, comments, criticisms?