What if China Stayed Christian? Part 1

 I think things would have been more chaotic especially around the time of the warlord era I don’t think you would see one unified China. The Tang would lose power much less dramatically and there would be significant division through all the next dynasties. The Mongols rule for much longer then in real life and only are toppled by the Ming Dynasty in 1394. The Ming Dynasty is in a weaker position but also more stoutly nationalistic. They fight the British East India Company and lose having to give up Tibet and are replaced by the Qing who utilize the powerful church to their advantage but the eastern church resists and pushes for more humanitarianism in China as the years go on Sun Yat Sen rebels with church backing as a nationalist yes but also as a humanitarian which is considered more of a political ideology in China Sun Yat Sen topples Qing Dynasty who escape to Qinghai which becomes de facto independent. Sun Yat Sen rules over a chaotic democracy as the Church gains more and power as China has its own sorta dark age. There is a high point of drama when the much larger Chinese Church finally splits from the Church of the East electing their own patriarch for the first time. In other news in 1916 Tibet successfully rebels from India. The 1st Wolrd War passes largely without Chinese involvement but in between wars trouble breaks out. See the new Soviet government funds a Marxist rebellion in Mongolia which is brutally suppressed by the republic causing a short war to break out not much fighting occurs but Donduk Kuular pledges his loyalty to Yuan Shikai resulting in Tana Tuva basically being absorbed into China.

So China has an uneventful but growth filled twenties as a man named Mao Zedong translates a book called the communist manifesto and starts building support in Shanxi. Meanwhile some kind of elections occur after the Humanitarians promise them for a very long time. The Humanitarian Party wins a wide majority in a vote many call rigged meanwhile Mao is formalizing his ideology into a different version of Maoism. Christianity wouldn’t allow Maoism as it really was so Mao instead creates a strange form of communism that is very hard to describe but can be described as orthodox Trotskyism and a sorta proto anarcho-primitivism meanwhile the outbreak of WW2 hits close to home as Japan comes knocking. Qinghai jumps at the oppressive as the Qing break out of their long exile. China fights back as the Church helps form a united front to beat back Japan then beat the Qing in a prolonged war.

China comes into the 50s without war or insurgency (yet) but with significant and growing divisions as the Humanitarians start to ask if their leaders actually believe in humanitarianism or just their own power. Mao’s followers grow and a significant Chinese styled socialism under the name Radical Humanitarianism begins to grow. The Qing & the Bishoprics begin asserting themselves as nations while still pretending as if they still are loyal to the Chinese. China is a powder keg waiting to be set alight.