alternatehistory.com

So as we know, the Gang of Four seized power in China in 1977, having purged the pragmatists like Hua Guofeng and reformists like Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun a year earlier. The Cultural Revolution was still ongoing as of 1985, at the brink of the Second Chinese Civil War, and only officially ended when China imploded along provincial and ethnolinguistic lines in 1998.

These days Cantonia and Hokkian are major sources of cheap, skilled labour that's displacing Hong Kong and Taiwan's population structure. Tibet is a theocratic republic, while East Turkestan is suffering an Islamist insurgency. Backwaters are all across northern and western China, with the Republic of Qin being extremely rural outside of Xi'an, Xianyang, Lanzhou, Jiuquan, and Yinchuan.

Now, suppose the Gang of Four did not purge the non-Maoists, how would China fare under such a leadership? Is it possible to butterfly away the Second Chinese Civil War and the PRC's collapse?

Cantonia controls Guangdong, Guangxi and Ganzhou, Jiangxi
Hokkian is TTL Fujian, with the inclusion of Kinmen but not Matsu
Qin controls Gansu (sans most of Gannan), Ningxia, Shaanxi (sans Yulin (榆林) and part of Yan'an), and northeastern Qinghai (Haidong, Xining, most of Haibei)
Hong Kong is a Commonwealth realm, and controls the Wanshan / Ladrones Islands
Macau is still Portuguese territory
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