Alternate History Challenge: Chinese control of Central Asia:

IOTL the Qing Empire did extend Chinese influence into a good-sized chunk of Central Asia, but this was very late in the history of the Chinese imperial system. What kind of changes would be necessary for an earlier Chinese dynasty to extend its own influence into this region? What kind of influence would the Chinese have? Would it be colonies? Trading stations? Military outposts? Would this mean an earlier Chinese-Russian confrontation?
 
The Han and Tang Dynasties did have decent control over what is now Xinjiang Province, but this was lost mostly during the second half of the Tang Dynasty. This was partly due to the Abbasid Caliphate moving in, and mostly due to internal turmoil in China.

The Battle of Talas is often mentioned as the turning point, when Central Asia was lost to China, but I don't really agree with that. If it wasn't for the An Lushan Rebellion, I think China could have continued its hold over the area. But at the same time, when the Tang eventually collapse, China might merely lose Central Asia anyways.
 
It might be easier if Islam or the Abbasid Caliphate were butterflied away, but the Ferghana Valley is too far away from the Chinese heartland for strong Imperial control to exist. The most long-term influence the Chinese civilization can exert would be cultural, through the creation of native-led "little Chinas" on the lines of OTL Korea and Japan. But thanks to the sheer distance they are unlikely to pay anything more than a token tribute and will certainly view themselves as empires of their own right, rather than offshoots of the Chinese empire (and in fact only Korea consistently viewed itself as such).
 
Elizabeth Chua's book "Day of Empire" describes how the Tang Emperors were considered rulers of both the steppe nomads and the sedentary Chinese and this contributed to the massiveness of their empire, but growing prejudice against the steppe peoples in China proper contributed to the An Lushan revolt.

(At least that's what I think happened. Her thesis was that more tolerant states are more successful.)

So basically, no An Lushan Rebellion and perhaps different social attitudes to avoid something similar happening and the uber-Tang might continued on for awhile.
 
Elizabeth Chua's book "Day of Empire" describes how the Tang Emperors were considered rulers of both the steppe nomads and the sedentary Chinese and this contributed to the massiveness of their empire, but growing prejudice against the steppe peoples in China proper contributed to the An Lushan revolt.

(At least that's what I think happened. Her thesis was that more tolerant states are more successful.)

So basically, no An Lushan Rebellion and perhaps different social attitudes to avoid something similar happening and the uber-Tang might continued on for awhile.

Amy Chua? I think she's wrong. It was prejudice that grew after the An Lushan Rebellion, not before. It was a palace coup that triggered An Lushan's revolt, but afterwards, a lot of that prejudice came about because of the privileged status and arrogant behavior of Uighur and Sogdian merchants.
 
I thought of a scenario with two Pods the big one is that the An Shi Rebellion never happens and the second is that Feng Changqing not Gao Xianzhi is in charge at the Battle of Talas leading to a decisive Tang victory against the Abbasids. The combination of two PoDs would strengthen China's control over the region as well as strengthening the Tangg Dynasty. A side effect might be that the Abbasid Caliphate might devote more resources to fighting the Chinese in central Asia, which might have some interesting effects on India and the ERE.
 
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