Just a question will the tongzhi emperor not die just like in otl and have a actual heir?
Reasons will be western medicine with vaccination might be available to him?
Even japan had to dealt with their own rebellion
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma_Rebellion
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saigō_Takamori
Yes the one that inspired the last samurai movie
The 1st western translation of sun tzu's art of war was in french published in 1772 (re-published in 1782) by the French JesuitJean Joseph Marie Amiot.
There was that legend that napoleon had read that book.
A constitutional monarchy incoming?
and will the sepoy mutiny still happen?
Will china/qing exploit it?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857
i wonder if confucianism can be reformed with the emperors as the head of the religion? like the church of england for the british?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucian_church
Interesting, Franklin D Roosevelt's grandfather Warren Delano was a opium smuggler in otl.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/28/opinion/the-opium-war-s-secret-history.html
And also john kerry's ancestor
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Blackwell_Forbes
Will be interesting, more chinese republics and kingdoms like the lanfang?
China might not expand much but if the chinese people do their own colonizing?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanfang_Republic
The ming/qing pulled a meiji allies with imperial japan attack russia along with central powers in ww1?
Russia collapes as usual and have a worse brest-litovsk treaty due to additional chinese and japanese claims.
Then the civil war between the reds and the whites rages until a stalemate and a...
What if qianlong accepted sulu annexation?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/suluonlinelibrary.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/sulu-history-and-the-chinese/amp/
What about the lanfang republic?
Once reformed, japan might think twice about attacking china and might form the alternate east asia co-prosperity sphere as a treaty/alliance between them.