DBWI: Can a united China withstand European imperialism?

One of the key reasons that foreign powers were able to dominate the China region and carve it into spheres of influence in the 19th century was the inability of any one Chinese state to reunite the whole country after the collapse of the Ming dynasty in the 1700s. How successful is China in resisting American, European, and Japanese power if they have one huge united China to deal with instead of nearly a dozen competing ones and with the power of a centralized state are they able to modernize even quicker than they did in OTL?
 
One of the key reasons that foreign powers were able to dominate the China region and carve it into spheres of influence in the 19th century was the inability of any one Chinese state to reunite the whole country after the collapse of the Ming dynasty in the 1700s. How successful is China in resisting American, European, and Japanese power if they have one huge united China to deal with instead of nearly a dozen competing ones and with the power of a centralized state are they able to modernize even quicker than they did in OTL?

Probably they would have managed to starve them off. After all the Chinese region is huge. I ask though how big is that Unified China you asking?
 
A united China would be a gargantuan economical superpower. Of course it'd fight back. The West is lucky that the idea pretty much died out.
 
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