Any ideas/threads on whether Japan could install the Japanese emperor as emperor of China? My feeling is that the rest of the world agreeing to Japan's 21 Demands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_One_Demands) would get Japan's foot in the door. Later it could be followed up by an overt takeover - maybe following an extended period of post-Qing chaos, this time with Japan as a major player. Any ideas whether it's possible? What would it take for the rest of the world to turn its collective back on China? I have a hard time imagining Europe/NA tolerating photos of massacres, but maybe they could write it off as "Asian-on-Asian" violence, not meriting a response.
And would China have the capacity to throw the Japanese out? Based on what happened in WW2, it seems like Japan could occupy any urban area (at least by the 1940s), but China is simply too big for Japan, and the elite/educated class would reject a foreign takeover. So maybe Japan could claim the Mandate of Heaven for a generation, but would eventually be pushed back/go bankrupt? Japan would still have a resource problem, but if the rest of the world continued to trade, and Japan didn't have a Pacific theater to worry about, maybe it could work.
And would China have the capacity to throw the Japanese out? Based on what happened in WW2, it seems like Japan could occupy any urban area (at least by the 1940s), but China is simply too big for Japan, and the elite/educated class would reject a foreign takeover. So maybe Japan could claim the Mandate of Heaven for a generation, but would eventually be pushed back/go bankrupt? Japan would still have a resource problem, but if the rest of the world continued to trade, and Japan didn't have a Pacific theater to worry about, maybe it could work.