Chinese America

What if the Chinese decided to get access to silver directly without the Spanish middlemen and sent a fleet to the Americas (after all since some Chinese built European-style ships)?
 
It's definitely a cliche in AH, with China on the west coast (Zheng He and all that), but China arriving in the New World after the Spanish is probably the best chance for a Chinese colony in the Americas--there was an interesting TL to that nature a while back. The thing is, they need a reason. Agricultural land won't do it. And this is during the end of the Ming Dynasty (at earliest). They need to find the gold in California, because obviously Spain won't let them near Potosi, Zacatecas, or anywhere else of note. But there's lots of opportunity for the Chinese to gain control, since Spanish control was so tenuous. I think it's rather odd how OTL China didn't do anything like that, same goes with Japan and Morocco who also had capable rulers who knew about the New World but never launched expeditions to there to try and get something out of it.
 
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