In Look to the West, Qing-China's fate remains uncertain. The chief differences to OTL so far are that the Yongzheng Emperor lived longer, and Hongli the Prince Bao, who in OTL became the Qianlong Emperor, died young. Instead, Yongzheng was succeeded by Hongshi the Prince Zhong, who became the Daguo Emperor. This means that China's policy is different to OTL in that there is more emphasis on rooting out state corruption, resulting in a more efficient civil service (but also making a lot of enemies for the Qing emperors), and the response to the Dzungars has been more cautious than OTL, focusing on building forts to protect the Chinese border rather than trying to conquer the Dzungars. Because of this, Central Asia in general is more free from Chinese influence than OTL in the same period.

However, the Chinese army embarked on a much more successful invasion of Burma to OTL and has managed to drive the Konbaung dynasty of Ava into exile in Arakan, leaving a series of Chinese puppets or allies in Burma itself - Toungou-dynasty Ava, Pegu, Tougou (not to be confused with the Toungou dynasty), and Ayutthaya (a Thai state). Later in the 1760s Emperor Le Cung Tong of Dai Viet was propped up in the north (Tonkin) by the Chinese, rather than the Nguyen Lords of the south (Annam) conquering the whole of Dai Viet as in OTL.

The Guangzhong Emperor was very isolationist and court-focused in nature, with the result that the Chinese did not recognise the activities of the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company until the turn of the nineteenth century. At this point many Company men, including co-founder Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin, were captured and Lebedev was sentenced to death. Guangzhong was murdered by a Cossack bodyguard who owed Lebedev his life, and the Emperor's failure to confirm his succession, still consumed with the death of his first son and the inadequacies of his other two, resulted in the War of the Three Emperors. Six years into the war and disgusted by both claimants, the south of China rose as the Feng Dynasty, led by the “Phoenix Men”, an alliance of the Ming-loyalist Sanhedui organisation and the combined traders of the various European East India Companies. Corea also entered the war with irredentist ambitions directed at Manchuria.

1722-1754: Yongzheng Emperor (formerly Yinzhen)

1754-1787: Daguo Emperor (formerly Hongshi)

1787-1806: Guangzhong Emperor (formerly Yongli; assassinated)

1806-: Civil war, the War of the Three Emperors. The claimants are:

1806-: Yenzhang Emperor (formerly Baoli)

1806-: Chongqian Emperor (formerly Baoyi)

1812-: Dansheng Emperor (formerly Zheng Kejing; Feng Dynasty)

1806-1850: Chongqian Emperor (formerly Baoyi)

1850-1870: Jianing Emperor (formerly Zaizhu)

1870-1895: (three short-lived emperors)

1895-: Weili Emperor

1812-1843: Dansheng Emperor (formerly Zheng Kejing)

1843-1867: Jixu Emperor

1867-: Xuanming Emperor

As in OTL, China does not have a national flag in the European sense. The pennant below is often flown on Chinese ships, and is perhaps the closest equivalent.

Main Index of Look to the West States and Regions