Chinese Expansion into the Pacific

I decided to split this discussion off of my other thread because it's an interesting idea and wasn't going to get the attention it deserves there. It is also simulatneously more general and more specific than that--the latter in being specifically Chinese, and more general in that they don't necesarilly have to reach the Americas at any point. So in other words, it's completely different from the point of that thread, though related.

So anyway, let's talk about getting more expansive and agressive Chinese trade in the South Seas. It'll probably be more along the lines of various merchant clans carving up spheres of influence in the spice trade rather than out-and-out colonialism, but whatever.
 
Cross-posting;

Southern Song hold the Mongols at bay, turn into a thalassocratic mercantile state, slowly but surely expand their influence, culture, trade, and ultimately settlements across South East Asia, the East Indies, Australia, and Polynesia. Even if/when the old dynasty falls the seeds have been settled, and ultimately whether or not it's an empire based out of Hangzhou or several competing *Chinese successor states spread across the region, at some point some Chinese merchant or explorer 'discovers' South America following the old Polynesian trade routes.
 
That's taking a page out of an old aborted timeline of mine, titled Sometimes you get the bear...

In it, I have An Lushan's rebellion against the Tang be more successful, and a southern successor state to the Tang makes a sustained and purposeful effort to expand overseas. In the span of approximately 60 years, I had them gain territory in Japan, the Phillipines, the Moluccas and elsewhere. At that point, I ceased working on the timeline.
 
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I've always liked the idea of a lost Chinese colony in the Pacific. A lot of people back home like to speculate about (Gavin Menzies has a lot to answer for) about such in NZ.

I don't think an actual colony is particularly realistic, as such things do take a lot of long term effort, but a lost ship or two settling down amongst the Maori would be amusing
 
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