WI: China Permanently Holds Onto Tibet, Siberia, Mongolia, Korea, and Central Asia

How did Russia steamroll through Siberia while China had trouble?
The directions of Siberia's river systems rather helped, I believe. The Volga (which branches into Siberia) was a major river in Russia prior to expansion into Siberia and the short portage between the east-west rivers made it fairly easy for Russian Cossacks to get from the Urals to the Pacific in only about half a century.

China, on the other hand, didn't really have much incentive to explore a frozen wasteland (since that's what it was prior to discovery of its mineral resources, hindsight is 20/20). The Amur was only a border of the northern reaches of the Manchu tribes and didn't play too huge of a role for the Chinese empires at any point, so exploring its reaches wasn't too big on anyone's priority list. There was plenty of more temperate land to settle+conquer to the south and millions of Chinese left for Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. over the centuries. The money and drive was never in the north, so it's natural that China hadn't really touched the region at any point. Russia, on the other hand, had it as a natural extension of their major river and trade routes, there was more the will to expand that way and acquire its money.

Tell that to the Sui.
The Han held northern Korea for a few centuries. Plus, the Tang managed to break the Goguryeo by siding with the Silla. However,
Korea wasn’t as difficult to hold.
None of the post-Han dynasties managed to hold onto much of the Korean peninsula for long. Rather than it being difficult to hold, it was more like they stopped trying altogether because it was more worthwhile to cooperate than to send troops to a hostile land (the Goryeo suffered 7 invasions by the Mongols rather than bend the knee entirely).

If the Chinese empires tried, they probably could've subdued the whole peninsula but only after significant costs and causalities, judging by every invasion attempt of the peninsula by outsiders. Not quite on the same level as Vietnam but it'd take a significant campaign to conquer and hold, seeing the result of the Tang-Silla War. Then going ahead to invade Mongolia, Central Asia, Siberia...that's probably not as likely, since the logistics would've been difficult to manage, especially with the need to administer the new territories and suppress any attempts by the Koreans to gain the independence that they were used to. It would've been costlier to do than to simply coexist with tribute. The Chinese empires conquered lands for wealth and border protection. Korea wouldn't have added a huge amount of wealth relative to the cost of invasion and the border wasn't too much of a concern (the Korea kingdoms weren't suicidal; they knew fighting the Chinese would not benefit them either. They could fight but they wouldn't gain anything meaningful from the conflict the way nomads could loot and flee).

It'd take a very rich, very stable empire quite a while and a series of very aggressive empires and weaker bureaucrats and eunuchs to go ahead and conquer all of that and a few good emperors and centuries of luck more to actually keep them permanently. As for effects, Korea's already plenty Sinicized but maybe a bit more Chinese influence in the western regions, just from settlers and increased trade. No Hangul, just Hanja, naturally. Unless the government forced settlement, Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, and Central Asia probably wouldn't be very populated, with current day Xinjiang and Tibet in mind. Maybe a bit more but there's just better land to live on elsewhere.

And, of course, it makes it easier for regional identities to form and the central government's expenses to rise just with the vast addition of so much land. Warlord eras would be worse, probably, with more (stronger) contenders.
 
China's not hanging onto Central Asia without overcoming the Abbasids at Talas or solving the logistical hurdles of operating such a vast empire in that period. Maybe a Tang victory leads to Transoxiana Sinicizing rather than Islamizing, but you'd need to reverse the two sides' fortunes.
 
Wasnt that during the Han period though? Outside the Mongol era tributes always seemed the norm when it came to Sino-Korea relationahip.
 
Wasnt that during the Han period though? Outside the Mongol era tributes always seemed the norm when it came to Sino-Korea relationahip.
It was.From the Western Han Dynasty to the Western Jin Dynasty,China had permanent control over North Korea.
 
China's not hanging onto Central Asia without overcoming the Abbasids at Talas or solving the logistical hurdles of operating such a vast empire in that period. Maybe a Tang victory leads to Transoxiana Sinicizing rather than Islamizing, but you'd need to reverse the two sides' fortunes.

What about sending settlers to better hold onto the region?
 
How do you keep those people both safe and loyal?
How do you keep the natives loyal and safe without sending settlers of your own?

The early Tang Dynasty had a land for military service system in place. Keep that in the Tarim Basin. Such troops were far more loyal than the regular army troops because most of the time,they want to get back home as long as the military threat is over as opposed to having nothing to do after the war except perhaps to provoke one or bully the government into granting them benefits.

Now,from what I’ve read,depending on where you go in the Tarim Basin,the Tang Dynasty did send settlers. That is probably why the Tang Dynasty was able to hold onto the Tarim Basin decades after connection to the area was cut.
 
How do you keep the natives loyal and safe without sending settlers of your own?

The early Tang Dynasty had a land for military service system in place. Keep that in the Tarim Basin. Such troops were far more loyal than the regular army troops because most of the time,they want to get back home as long as the military threat is over as opposed to having nothing to do after the war except perhaps to provoke one or bully the government into granting them benefits.

Now,from what I’ve read,depending on where you go in the Tarim Basin,the Tang Dynasty did send settlers. That is probably why the Tang Dynasty was able to hold onto the Tarim Basin decades after connection to the area was cut.

My point is that much of Central Asia is better suited to nomadic forms of organization until the thorough maturity of firearms. Any settlers are going to be either easy pickings for nomads, or happier paying tribute to them than taxes to the imperial capital.
 
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