DBWI: Avoid The Breakup of China into Three 'Kingdoms'

Ming777

Monthly Donor
Well, there are record that the KwunTung Army of the IJA tried to force Japan into invading the rest of China. It appeared they planned to stage bombings of trains and pin the blame on China. That plot was uncovered, and the Kwuntung army was effectively dissolved, with the conspirators either commiting suicide or executed for disobeying orders to not start a war on the rest of China.
 
I wouldn't say that it's impossible for a nation as big as and as populous as China to stay together. I mean, just look at the United States. Granted, the population is much less than China, but they're more or less the same size, have a generally uniform culture and national identity, and in the US' case, have large chunks of territory not connected by land (Alaska) to the heartland. Ditto for Russia.

However, to keep China united...difficult. IMO the biggest problem was the Qing's inability to modernize their nation and maintain centralized control back in the late 19th Century. Had they pulled a Meiji, it might have worked out, though admittedly Qing rule was on very shaky legs from the 1850s onward.
 

Dolan

Banned
Anyway, the Qing did finally reform, but that was too late as the Southern parts of China quickly goes up in Rebellion only after the Guangxu reform, but at least the rebels can't take anything past Tientsin line, and the capital of Peking was untouched by the Rebels, even as if the Xinhai Revolutionary once take everything in the South excluding Tibet (who actually fought at the side of the Qing).

Say, the Kuomintang ROC managed to actually break the Tientsin line and took Peking, while the Qing could still retreat further into Manchukuo, losing their capital might actually cause them to collapse instead of retreating.

Could either Sun Yat-Sen or Chiang Kai-Shek managed to do just that before the Soviet backed Communist rebellion happened?
 
Top