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Here is a grab-bag of PoDs for Asia in the 1920s.

I’ll concede these are actually limited to China and Japan what-ifs, mostly in political affairs.

Responses to the PoDs are requested, and additional ones, especially on other Asian countries, are invited.

Here we go:

1. AHC/PC: Britain (possibly in league with other powers) intervenes against Chinese Nationalist “Northern Expedition”

2. AHC/PC: Chinese Nationalists secure Soviet support and begin at least a partially effective “Northern Expedition” anytime starting from 1922 to 1924. (Sun Yat-sen had envisioned the “Northern Expedition” concept for at least 5 years before it was launched in OTL 1926. In OTL he kept his movement alive, at times barely alive, but just didn’t succeed in launching the “Northern Expedition” in his lifetime)

3. No Taisho earthquake (1923) ? No major earthquake occurs in Japan until at least 1935. The PoD is some tectonic or sub-surface cause. Logical knock-ons would be that the timing and intensity of many earthquakes after 1923, and pretty much all earthquakes everywhere from 1935 on, would be different.

4. Soviets never make a United Front with the KMT, but support the Chinese Communists (and possibly some regional warlords) instead.

5. Japan refuses to evacuate Sakhalin, 1925

6. Chiang Kai-shek becomes a Communist, or Communist-Nationalist fusionist.

7. Chinese Communist Party secures support of the Yangtze Valley “Green Gang” organized labor/organized crime complex. “Big Eared Du” gets a CCP position?

8. Soviets never inherit Imperial Russian concessions in the Chinese Eastern Railway

9. Chinese assassination attempt on Japanese consul in Shanghai in 1927 succeeds

10. Taisho Emperor lives out the 1920s

11. Zhang Zuolin not assassinated

12. Kwangtung Army invades Manchuria soon after January 1928 Zhang Zuolin assassination, with the intention of setting up, “Manchukuo”

13. Kwangtung Army invades Manchuria with intention of setting up “Manchukuo” in first half of 1929, after Zhang Zuolin executes his pro-Japanese advisors (January 1929) as a sequel to his declaration of allegiance to Chiang (December 1928)

14. Japanese refuse to evacuate Shandong in spring/summer 1929

15. Soviets or Chinese greatly escalate their armed clash of July-October 1929 over the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria. Perhaps Soviets attempting to support leftist takeover in Manchuria, or Chiang throwing maximum support to Zhang Zueliang in fight, or broadening conflict to Mongolia and/or Xinjiang.

16. Japanese provide major military aid/military support to Chinese side (Zhang locally and Chiang nationally) in their late 1929 clash with the Soviets over the Chinese Eastern Railway.

17. Japanese attempt to work out a partition or spheres of influence deal with Soviets, siding with the Soviets in their late 1929 clash with China in Manchuria, trying for a Manchukuo (or least a half-Manchukuo) during that conflict.

18. Something different happens in Japanese-occupied Korea or Taiwan

19. Japanese government rejects 1930 naval arms limitation treaty, or refuses to even engage in talks over it.

20. Chiang Kai-shek politically finished, exiled or killed in political tensions at any point in the 1920s

21. Wang Jingwei finishes the decade as China’s titular leader. How does it happen and what are the knock-on effects in the next decade?

22. AHC/PC: Chinese Communist seizure of national power in 1920s China (or seizure of power in several whole provinces).

23. Sino-Japanese alliance preserved or revived in 1920s

24. No Jinan Incident and Japanese occupation of Shandong in 1928-1929

25. AHC/PC: Nationalist/Communist United Front stays intact through end of 1920s

26. AHC/PC: Japan provides substantial diplomatic/military support of Chinese nationalists against western intervention or interests in the decade.
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