It's been a
long while. Apologies, here's the next major update to
The Manchurian Candidate.
The
Xianhui Emperor, born
Yuzhang of the
Aisin Gioro Royal house, is the incumbent Emperor of the
Qing Dynasty, and has reigned since his coronation in 2015. Ascending upon the death of his father, the widely admired
Renzun Emperor, Yuzhang's already advanced age (he was 73 on his coronation day) initially lead to speculation that the power of the Throne would recede under his tenure. However, Yuzhang quickly proved himself to be a dynamic ruler, and was able to push the Qing Parliament to enact further political reforms including a push for greater gender equality. The Emperor has also garnered praise for his handling of ethnic and cultural issues, and became the first Qing Emperor to give a speech in Russian to an assembled crowd in Harbin on Orthodox Christmas. A lifelong Buddhist, the Emperor has notably leveraged his faith to reach out to Han and Korean Qing citizens to appeal to cultural and national unity.
Emperor Xianhui's popularity would spike after his calm and resolute response to a new round of terror attacks within Hulunbuir carried out by Mongol nationalists; his diplomatic presence has also been frequently praised, and Yuzhang became the first Qing Emperor to visit the Forbidden Palace in Peking since the
Manchu Restoration over a hundred years ago during a diplomatic mission to the Chinese Empire. The Emperor has also prioritized relations with the Japanese Empire and it's Co-Prosperity Sphere after a decade of slowly rising tensions, taking a more cautious approach to the
Kwantung Question than his father did, conspicuously avoiding the issue altogether while abroad on diplomatic missions. Though well liked by much of the Qing population, the Emperor has already dealt with increased activity from Mongol and Korean nationalist groups in the few short years of his reign thusfar.
Though Yuzhang hails from a family well known for longevity (Puyi reigned for nearly 50 years following restoration, and the Xianhui Emperor's father lived well into his 90s), his poor health is an open secret and certain diplomatic and Imperial duties have already begun to fall to the Emperor's son, Heng Jin.
---
The Xianhui Emperor is the ruler of the
Empire of the Great Qing, known in the rest of China as the
Northern or
Later Qing Dynasty. While Yuzhang is officially the 15th Qing Emperor, dating back to the rise of the Qing Dynasty hundreds of years prior, he is more widely acknowledged to be the "恢復以來的第四位皇帝," the "Huīfù yǐlái de dì sì wèi huángdì." The
Fourth Emperor Since Restoration. Indeed, the
Interregnum between 1911 and 1917 stands as a 'hole in history' for the Qing Empire, which ceased to be following the
Xinhai Revolution and was only revived following the
National Protection War and the shortly following
Manchu Restoration. Even then, for over 70 years following Restoration, the Qing Empire would continue to claim the entirety of it's former holdings to the South, a claim strongly disputed by the
Chinese Empire and a diplomatic sticking point between the two neighbors. The current diplomatic relationship between the two Empires would only take shape with the signing of the
Inter-Dynastic Treaty in Peking, which normalized relations between the Qing and
Gang Dynasties and would ease tensions in East Asia.
While the rest of the world commonly refers to the Qing Empire as
Manchuria or the
Manchu Kingdom, the Qing Empire is only about a fifth ethnic Manchu, and is known generally as the
melting pot of the Orient. Han Chinese citizens make up a plurality of the Qing population, and represent the largest demographic group in the country, even after the
Northeast Expulsions of the 50's. After the ethnic Manchu, who benefited from decades of favorable cultural policies,
Mongols represent the next relatively large ethnic group, and make up a majority of citizens in the Northwest Hulunbuir Province, which is home to
Mongol Nationalist and Terrorist Groups seeking reunion with the mother country to the West.
Koreans and Japanese citizens have likewise played a major role in the development of Qing nationhood, and both groups are strong advocates for Qing membership in the
Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, a proposal made near-impossible by what is officially acknowledged in Mukden as the
Occupation of the Kwantung Territory, widely known in foreign diplomatic circles as the
"Kwantung Question." The Empire's Russian population has largely been clustered in the city of Harbin ("the Moscow of Asia") but waves of immigration from the
Second World War and the Japanese Invasion of the Far East have made the country's Slavic population a significant demographic bloc at the polls, making Russian ethnic parties a frequent center of political intrigue.
A rapidly developing country (though still leagues behind the Chinese Empire proper), the cosmopolitan Qing Empire boasts cultural and economic strength and a high standard of living not always common in Asia.
