Ming colonies

Chinese scholar Wu Pu suggested the Chinese found commercial colonies in Vietnam. Emphasis mine:

Wu also mentions as possible choices for establishing new international market places, the inlet bay of Thái Bình 太平 in the southern estuary of Red River, and Tân Châu 新洲, called Thị Nại in Vietnamese, the former Champa port located near the ruined capital Vijaya in present Quy Nhơn city. He shows special interest in Tân Châu, which, according to his remark, was an unpopulated buffering zone between Vietnam and Champa, since Vijaya had been conquered by the Vietnamese troops in 1471. He explains Tân Châu as such a desirable place for intermediate trade, and the land in its vicinity so fertile and suitable for farming, fishing and salt making, that it is worth establishing there a colony for overseas Chinese as an international commercial center. Then he suggests resettling the Champa kingdom again in Tân Châu, in order that those Chinese refugees in various places in overseas countries could relocate themselves in Tân Châu, be allocated land and housing for each household, and in the meantime, be organized in the local militia with their leaders as centurions 千百戶. If done successfully, foreign ships would quickly throng Tân Châu, and Chinese merchants from Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong provinces would also go and trade with them. Moreover, if the rebellious Vietnamese rose against the sovereignty of China, the recovered Champa kingdom would provide a strategic footstep and reinforcement for the empire to contain their expansion.

Could be an interesting POD, and certainly more realistic (and profitable!) than Zheng He discovering America or his voyages continuing.
 
Couldn't they just try and conquer Vietnam again? In any case, thr Chinese already had private colonies farther South; state funding would be interesting (kinda like the contrast between private Portuguese communities and state-controlled territory)
 
They tried to conquer Vietnam. They tried HARD during the reign of Yongle. They actually went to try and assimilate the whole population to make them chinese, banning tattoos, forcing budhism, etc...

But they got rebellion after rebellion, first Gian Dinh and then Le Loi who started a huge guerilla campaign. After Le Loi, Vietnam was too strong to be worth the effort, and by that time Champa was already an empty husk.

Basically, for Champa to become an actual threat by the time the Chinese get their shit together (after the death of Tamerlan basically), the effort needed to prop up the Champa is more or less the same as the one needed for a full blown invasion. Champa actually asked to become Chinese entity, a protectorate around 1403, to protect itself against Vietnam. That's how bad they were.
 
The idea here is more so that Champa would be propped up as a puppet to weaken Vietnam and for commercial purposes, considering how expensive full-on conquest is.

Gotcha, so a more vassalized Champa to squeeze 'Nam on both fronts. Wonder if the Khmer might stay stronger in the south, if the Champa are focused north.

Another interesting wrinkle -- given the Cham ties to Indonesia, esp. Aceh , and their slow adoption of Islam at the time (slow as in steady, successful conversion), I could see greater Cham ties to the Chinese kongsi down there as well, and another avenue for Hui success (given the Ming use of people like Zheng He and the common religion)
 
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