Chiang Kai-Shek goes to Germany: An Axis China Timeline
- Thread starter CCA
- Start date
Excellent a question CCA:
What is the situation for Indochina, Burma, and East Indies?
You mentioned a Sino German split in 1956, I think with teh split happening, the Chinese may be in a bind, however how about this idea, the Chinese have an alliance with the USA, the price for the alliance, the Chinese help the USA in its nuke program. The Japanese taking advantage of the split follow the British and joins the Axis. The Japanese would be a great fit in the Axis as its a colonial power. I htink even with the Sino German split, parts of the German gov. and military will be close with China , however the dealings are under the table.
As for Trotsky France and the USSR. I think by this time Stalin has already died. So depending on the leader who takes over who I think will be Beria or Khrushchev, they will be very critical of Stalin, Stalin as in OTL after his death gets a good dressing down. I think the new leadership of the USSR will be friendly with Trotsky France, as a reconciliation of sorts however both sides still dont trust the other. Yah the USSR might get its nuke with the help of France.
As for the next leader of Germany, I think its Heydrich.
What is the situation for Indochina, Burma, and East Indies?
You mentioned a Sino German split in 1956, I think with teh split happening, the Chinese may be in a bind, however how about this idea, the Chinese have an alliance with the USA, the price for the alliance, the Chinese help the USA in its nuke program. The Japanese taking advantage of the split follow the British and joins the Axis. The Japanese would be a great fit in the Axis as its a colonial power. I htink even with the Sino German split, parts of the German gov. and military will be close with China , however the dealings are under the table.
As for Trotsky France and the USSR. I think by this time Stalin has already died. So depending on the leader who takes over who I think will be Beria or Khrushchev, they will be very critical of Stalin, Stalin as in OTL after his death gets a good dressing down. I think the new leadership of the USSR will be friendly with Trotsky France, as a reconciliation of sorts however both sides still dont trust the other. Yah the USSR might get its nuke with the help of France.
As for the next leader of Germany, I think its Heydrich.
The SS may not have the most power here. I can see the army seeing them similar to the SA if they get too big for their britches.
If they both shared a land border with either the Axis or the Soviets -and the UK hadn't got Fascist in TTL - , they might not.
I feel that their would be quite a few nationalists being under the Swedish crown once more. The socialist, democrat, left, right, it wouldn't do. They would need to just get a deep alliance going, or sink and swim on their own merits.
The Man with the Iron Mask becomes the man with the Iron Heart: President Chiang (1945-55)
The Man with the Iron Mask becomes the man with the Iron Heart: President Chiang
Following the San Francisco Conference, Chiang returned home with a victory. China had retaken Manchuria (with caveats such as it being a demilitarized zone by mutual agreement for both the Soviet Union and China, extra-territorial concessions and reparations) but nonetheless, it had retaken Manchuria. But at what cost? China had lost between 10-20 million in the Second Great War - many of them the creme de la creme of Chinese society. It was now suffering from a serious famine and a massive refugee crisis. The central question of the 1945 Presidential Election: Was it worth it?
Are starving children worth the victory?
The 1945 election
Chiang predictably won the endorsement of the White and Blue faction of the Kuomintang with Wang winning the endorsement of the Red faction. This was a bitter election fought to the knife with Wang fiercely critiquing the conduct of the war and Chiang criticizing Wang’s foreign policy failures.
Both men were confident of victory - but the election swung on to who Zhang Zhoulin would support. Moscow instructed him to support Wang, but knowing that a co-aligned Moscow and Nanking would undermine his autonomy, he stuffed the ballots in Manchuria in favour of Chiang and the Blue faction - an irony as he technically led the Communist Party of Manchuria.
The result was a narrow victory in favour of Chiang - 53% compared to 47% that Wang received. But Zhang would extract his price. He demanded autonomy and the role of Prime Minister as the price for his support. He wouldn’t attend any cabinet meetings or even go to the capital - he just wanted the potential to use power to gain his autonomy.
Chiang agreed.
Father Knows Best
Perhaps unsurprisingly, being kept in solitary confinement in a caged mask by a man you thought was your friend for a few months warped Chiang’s personality. This meant that his last term of office was significantly more authoritarian than the first Kuomintang government.
Setting the tone of the rest of the term was the refusal to lift Martial Law after the re-election. Even though Chiang had the factional numbers in the Legislative Yuan since Zhuolin’s blatant ballot stuffing, he still preferred to rule by decree.
The first act after confirming that martial law was standing was to strip Wang of his roles and appoint him as the ambassador to Moscow where he would be a prisoner in a gilded cage. His wife and family were kept in Nanking to ensure his good behaviour and to ensure that he would not defect.
The second was in unilaterally creating two new posts in the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) - two Vice Presidenct positions where he appointed his two sons: Chiang Weikuo and Chiang Chingkuo. Chiang’s injuries had left him more acutely aware of his own mortality more than ever and he wanted to send clear signals about succession, but could not yet make his mind up about which of the sons he would pick. His plan was to work closely with them and give them projects and then pick the best performing one for Vice President in 1955 and send either Weikuo to Germany or Chingkuo to America as the ambassador.
For Weikuo - he would appoint him as Plenipotentiary for Famine Relief and Agricultural Production to give him experience in dealing with domestic affairs and give him local contacts. For Chingkuo, he would reward his excellent service by formally naming him as the Plenipotentiary “Moral Purification and Anticorruption.” This - as the name implies was a bid to eliminate the massive corruption that had begun to take root in the wake of rampant poverty and famine.
He also reshuffled the cabinet, sending many of the leftists to less crucial roles. Mao went from the Labour Relations ministry where he did an excellent job keeping the peace and preventing industrial strife during the war to Secretary for Agricultural Affairs where he was overshadowed and overruled by Chiang’s own son. Dai Li was rewarded for his loyalty by being named the Plenipotentiary for Statistics, Information, and Internal Affairs (in effect, merging the interior ministry, the propaganda ministry with his existing secret police apparatus.) Chiang’s wife was moved from those roles to the Foreign Affairs ministry. Dai Li was also given oversight over the ultra-confidential Project Gotterdammerung project.
The Second Kuomintang Government (1945-55)
President and Supreme Field Marshall: Chiang Kai-Shek
Vice President: Chiang Weikuo (Plenipotentiary for Famine Relief and Agricultural Production)
Vice President: Chiang Chingkuo (Plenipotentiary for Moral Purification and Anticorruption)
Prime Minister: Zhang Zhoulin
Premier: T.V Soong (Finance Minister)
Speaker of the House: Lin Sen
Plenipotentiary for Statistics, Information, and Internal Affairs: Dai Li
Secretary for Foreign Affairs: Soong Meiling
Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs: T.V Soong
Secretary of Economic Development: H.H Kung
Secretary of Transportation and Communication: Deng Xiaoping
Commisar for Regional Development: Soong-Ailing
Secretary for Ethnic Affairs: Soong-Qingling
Secretary for Labour Relations: Liu Han
Secretary for Agricultural Affairs: Mao Zedong
Ministry of Defence: Chiang Kai-Shek
Secretary for War Production and Arnaments: He Yingquin
Secretary of Aviation: Feng Ru
Secretary of Maritime Affairs: Chan Chak
Secretary of the National Revolutionary Army: Sun li-Jen
This was a time of continued repression. The censorship of arts, media and speech from the war was continued - as was rationing, conscription. The only thing that indicated that the war had ended was the slight demobilization of the army and the slight decrease of production quotas - in all other areas, life was almost as hard.
The great Asian Famine
In fact, life was harder. The Great Asian Famine - caused by the Yellow River Floods, Japanese “famine bombs”, the collapse of Bengali agriculture was exacerbated by the fact that many peasants now had access to firearms thanks to the Civil Protection training being extended to the rural countryside. Although peasants were told not to shoot sparrows, hunger was a far more cruel master than the KMT could ever hope to be and the sparrow population decreased by almost 33%. Naturally this meant that even though Weikuo had started a program of planting crops in all possible arable land including parks and gardens, agricultural production would not resume to pre-yellow flood levels until 1953.
Even though Chiang tried to bridge the gap through aggressive food production strategies such as community gardens and urban architecture and the “Food diplomacy” of buying food off Latin American Countries and New Zealand - there was still widespread hunger and starvation. Simply put, there were too many mouths to feed and not enough food.
Food hoarding and corruption was also a big problem. The KMT had destroyed the Du Yusheng’s Green Gang - but it had simply coopted many others and the war had loosened their iron grip on them. Chingkuo’s “Moral Purification and Anticorruption” campaign ran headlong into the problem that many of the big time crooks had friends in cabinet or were in cabinet (He Yingqing, HH. Kung) and while there was some steps to repair the economy - these could never be fully implemented since the profits from the criminal activity was helping China repay it’s staggering war debts. The dilema that Chiang Chingkuo encountered was well portrayed in the original TV series “All Quiet in Peking
Foreign policy
Chiang pursued three key objectives in his foreign policy. The first was to secure food for the starving population - to this end, trade agreements were signed with New Zealand and all over Latin America to try and secure imports. Unfortunately, the Japanese ‘cropkiller’ diseases got on trade ships and also aggresively destroyed the agricultural production of many countries with the US as the exception due to the embargo against Chinese goods.
The second was to supply revolutionary activity throughout Asia and create a network of Chinese allies and puppets. Arms and supplies were aggressively funnelled to British-held Burma, to the Republic of Indochina and to the rebels against Japanese imperialism in Indonesia. But arms and supplies were also funnelled across Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa - but not to the same degree of urgency. This caused tension in the Axis following the British entry into the Axis in 1950, but Chiang could not and would not stop.
Even through the ups and downs of the Sino-German political relationship, the two peoples still felt and remained close to each other across the 20th and 21st century with polls in both countries regularly citing a high level of trust in each other.
The last was to continue cooperation with Germany. Sino-German cooperation actually intensified during this period. Germany squeezed her allies and her own population to send famine relief to China during this period and Sino-German technical cooperation was further enhanced and the relationship deepened. This led to continued progress on things like nuclear weaponry, rocketry, submarines, airships and even in cultural and social works with many youth groups visits across China and Germany. There was even a dynastic marriage to seal the alliance with Hitler’s niece Geli Raubal finally marrying her long-time fiancee Chiang Weikuo in 1947. Their union was symbolic of many marriages between German and Chinese during this time. From German submariners stationed in Hainan to Chinese Airshipmen training in Kiel, there was plenty of opportunity for contact between the “Two Fraternal Aryan Races” as Hitler would call it.
But the good times couldn't last. After hearing that Hitler had died, Chiang fell into a deep depression and had a stroke on May 4. Although he wouldn’t die until July, it didn’t matter. Neither of their successors were as close with each other and while Sino-German cooperation would recover from the Sino-German split of 1956, things would never be the same again. Chiang and Hitler’s death would end the friendship which probably defined the 20th century and the world would never see it’s like again.
Bonus Question: Who do you guys think will succeed Chiang (Kaishek)
Following the San Francisco Conference, Chiang returned home with a victory. China had retaken Manchuria (with caveats such as it being a demilitarized zone by mutual agreement for both the Soviet Union and China, extra-territorial concessions and reparations) but nonetheless, it had retaken Manchuria. But at what cost? China had lost between 10-20 million in the Second Great War - many of them the creme de la creme of Chinese society. It was now suffering from a serious famine and a massive refugee crisis. The central question of the 1945 Presidential Election: Was it worth it?
Are starving children worth the victory?
The 1945 election
Chiang predictably won the endorsement of the White and Blue faction of the Kuomintang with Wang winning the endorsement of the Red faction. This was a bitter election fought to the knife with Wang fiercely critiquing the conduct of the war and Chiang criticizing Wang’s foreign policy failures.
Both men were confident of victory - but the election swung on to who Zhang Zhoulin would support. Moscow instructed him to support Wang, but knowing that a co-aligned Moscow and Nanking would undermine his autonomy, he stuffed the ballots in Manchuria in favour of Chiang and the Blue faction - an irony as he technically led the Communist Party of Manchuria.
The result was a narrow victory in favour of Chiang - 53% compared to 47% that Wang received. But Zhang would extract his price. He demanded autonomy and the role of Prime Minister as the price for his support. He wouldn’t attend any cabinet meetings or even go to the capital - he just wanted the potential to use power to gain his autonomy.
Chiang agreed.
Father Knows Best
Perhaps unsurprisingly, being kept in solitary confinement in a caged mask by a man you thought was your friend for a few months warped Chiang’s personality. This meant that his last term of office was significantly more authoritarian than the first Kuomintang government.
Setting the tone of the rest of the term was the refusal to lift Martial Law after the re-election. Even though Chiang had the factional numbers in the Legislative Yuan since Zhuolin’s blatant ballot stuffing, he still preferred to rule by decree.
The first act after confirming that martial law was standing was to strip Wang of his roles and appoint him as the ambassador to Moscow where he would be a prisoner in a gilded cage. His wife and family were kept in Nanking to ensure his good behaviour and to ensure that he would not defect.
The second was in unilaterally creating two new posts in the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) - two Vice Presidenct positions where he appointed his two sons: Chiang Weikuo and Chiang Chingkuo. Chiang’s injuries had left him more acutely aware of his own mortality more than ever and he wanted to send clear signals about succession, but could not yet make his mind up about which of the sons he would pick. His plan was to work closely with them and give them projects and then pick the best performing one for Vice President in 1955 and send either Weikuo to Germany or Chingkuo to America as the ambassador.
For Weikuo - he would appoint him as Plenipotentiary for Famine Relief and Agricultural Production to give him experience in dealing with domestic affairs and give him local contacts. For Chingkuo, he would reward his excellent service by formally naming him as the Plenipotentiary “Moral Purification and Anticorruption.” This - as the name implies was a bid to eliminate the massive corruption that had begun to take root in the wake of rampant poverty and famine.
He also reshuffled the cabinet, sending many of the leftists to less crucial roles. Mao went from the Labour Relations ministry where he did an excellent job keeping the peace and preventing industrial strife during the war to Secretary for Agricultural Affairs where he was overshadowed and overruled by Chiang’s own son. Dai Li was rewarded for his loyalty by being named the Plenipotentiary for Statistics, Information, and Internal Affairs (in effect, merging the interior ministry, the propaganda ministry with his existing secret police apparatus.) Chiang’s wife was moved from those roles to the Foreign Affairs ministry. Dai Li was also given oversight over the ultra-confidential Project Gotterdammerung project.
The Second Kuomintang Government (1945-55)
President and Supreme Field Marshall: Chiang Kai-Shek
Vice President: Chiang Weikuo (Plenipotentiary for Famine Relief and Agricultural Production)
Vice President: Chiang Chingkuo (Plenipotentiary for Moral Purification and Anticorruption)
Prime Minister: Zhang Zhoulin
Premier: T.V Soong (Finance Minister)
Speaker of the House: Lin Sen
Plenipotentiary for Statistics, Information, and Internal Affairs: Dai Li
Secretary for Foreign Affairs: Soong Meiling
Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs: T.V Soong
Secretary of Economic Development: H.H Kung
Secretary of Transportation and Communication: Deng Xiaoping
Commisar for Regional Development: Soong-Ailing
Secretary for Ethnic Affairs: Soong-Qingling
Secretary for Labour Relations: Liu Han
Secretary for Agricultural Affairs: Mao Zedong
Ministry of Defence: Chiang Kai-Shek
Secretary for War Production and Arnaments: He Yingquin
Secretary of Aviation: Feng Ru
Secretary of Maritime Affairs: Chan Chak
Secretary of the National Revolutionary Army: Sun li-Jen
This was a time of continued repression. The censorship of arts, media and speech from the war was continued - as was rationing, conscription. The only thing that indicated that the war had ended was the slight demobilization of the army and the slight decrease of production quotas - in all other areas, life was almost as hard.
The great Asian Famine
In fact, life was harder. The Great Asian Famine - caused by the Yellow River Floods, Japanese “famine bombs”, the collapse of Bengali agriculture was exacerbated by the fact that many peasants now had access to firearms thanks to the Civil Protection training being extended to the rural countryside. Although peasants were told not to shoot sparrows, hunger was a far more cruel master than the KMT could ever hope to be and the sparrow population decreased by almost 33%. Naturally this meant that even though Weikuo had started a program of planting crops in all possible arable land including parks and gardens, agricultural production would not resume to pre-yellow flood levels until 1953.
Even though Chiang tried to bridge the gap through aggressive food production strategies such as community gardens and urban architecture and the “Food diplomacy” of buying food off Latin American Countries and New Zealand - there was still widespread hunger and starvation. Simply put, there were too many mouths to feed and not enough food.
Food hoarding and corruption was also a big problem. The KMT had destroyed the Du Yusheng’s Green Gang - but it had simply coopted many others and the war had loosened their iron grip on them. Chingkuo’s “Moral Purification and Anticorruption” campaign ran headlong into the problem that many of the big time crooks had friends in cabinet or were in cabinet (He Yingqing, HH. Kung) and while there was some steps to repair the economy - these could never be fully implemented since the profits from the criminal activity was helping China repay it’s staggering war debts. The dilema that Chiang Chingkuo encountered was well portrayed in the original TV series “All Quiet in Peking
Foreign policy
Chiang pursued three key objectives in his foreign policy. The first was to secure food for the starving population - to this end, trade agreements were signed with New Zealand and all over Latin America to try and secure imports. Unfortunately, the Japanese ‘cropkiller’ diseases got on trade ships and also aggresively destroyed the agricultural production of many countries with the US as the exception due to the embargo against Chinese goods.
The second was to supply revolutionary activity throughout Asia and create a network of Chinese allies and puppets. Arms and supplies were aggressively funnelled to British-held Burma, to the Republic of Indochina and to the rebels against Japanese imperialism in Indonesia. But arms and supplies were also funnelled across Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa - but not to the same degree of urgency. This caused tension in the Axis following the British entry into the Axis in 1950, but Chiang could not and would not stop.
Even through the ups and downs of the Sino-German political relationship, the two peoples still felt and remained close to each other across the 20th and 21st century with polls in both countries regularly citing a high level of trust in each other.
The last was to continue cooperation with Germany. Sino-German cooperation actually intensified during this period. Germany squeezed her allies and her own population to send famine relief to China during this period and Sino-German technical cooperation was further enhanced and the relationship deepened. This led to continued progress on things like nuclear weaponry, rocketry, submarines, airships and even in cultural and social works with many youth groups visits across China and Germany. There was even a dynastic marriage to seal the alliance with Hitler’s niece Geli Raubal finally marrying her long-time fiancee Chiang Weikuo in 1947. Their union was symbolic of many marriages between German and Chinese during this time. From German submariners stationed in Hainan to Chinese Airshipmen training in Kiel, there was plenty of opportunity for contact between the “Two Fraternal Aryan Races” as Hitler would call it.
But the good times couldn't last. After hearing that Hitler had died, Chiang fell into a deep depression and had a stroke on May 4. Although he wouldn’t die until July, it didn’t matter. Neither of their successors were as close with each other and while Sino-German cooperation would recover from the Sino-German split of 1956, things would never be the same again. Chiang and Hitler’s death would end the friendship which probably defined the 20th century and the world would never see it’s like again.
Bonus Question: Who do you guys think will succeed Chiang (Kaishek)
How did the cropkiller viruses exit China ? It's not like China is exporting food, obviously. Do they transmit through humans (as passive carriers) as well ? Or dogs / pets maybe ?
I'm also curious, what countries were touched and to what extent ?
Also if they transmit so easily, and since everyone is so clumsy in this TL, wouldn't the cropkillers virus reach Japan through misplaced supplies ?
I'm also curious, what countries were touched and to what extent ?
Also if they transmit so easily, and since everyone is so clumsy in this TL, wouldn't the cropkillers virus reach Japan through misplaced supplies ?
CCA love it love it love it , excellent update.
NOw also a few more questions:
1. Is Japan getting condemned for having its crop killer diseases going worldwide and destroying other countries crops?
I would think so, in fact, I think the Great powers would probably pressure the Japanese into handing out a cure or specs of their crop diseases, heck if it reaches the USA all bets are off.
2. Hey how about an idea, China is suffering from famine, how about Dai Li offer Nuke plans to USA in exchange for massive food aid, an alliance and technical help , also China would be great for US companies to invest in.
3. Who will succeed Chang kai Shek, Chang Ching Kuo, but it will be close. The KMT circle is split in supporting one or the other, but I think what tips the scales just like he did in the Central Plains war 1930 is the support of Manchurian strongman Zhang Tsuolin. Also Chang Wei Kuo is adopted son and also has Japanese blood(I am not surprsied this propoganda will be used against him). Chang Ching Kuo is also a leftist at heart(read his wiki entry, he studied in Moscow) so he probably would be more friendly with the USSR and against the Axis. An interesting thing would be the rise of Mao Tse Tung and Deng Xiaopeng for their support of Chang Ching Kuo. Chiang Wei Kuo on the other hand is right wing(with fascist leanings) and friendly with Germany. China under Chang Ching Kuo causes the split. and China leaving the Axis. China is focusing on trying to feed its people, restore order and economy and reform and stregnthen its insitutions and military ready for the next fight with Japan(who China feels is its main enemy, and the hate is personal and intense).
4. What is the situation in Japan? are they suffering also from famine and a economic depression? I think they would be, considering the Chinese napalmed their farm lands and they spent many millions during the war. However I think the Japanese while its freaking out from the atom bomb tests. Once the Chinese break off ties with the Axis, Japan will replace China there.
NOw also a few more questions:
1. Is Japan getting condemned for having its crop killer diseases going worldwide and destroying other countries crops?
I would think so, in fact, I think the Great powers would probably pressure the Japanese into handing out a cure or specs of their crop diseases, heck if it reaches the USA all bets are off.
2. Hey how about an idea, China is suffering from famine, how about Dai Li offer Nuke plans to USA in exchange for massive food aid, an alliance and technical help , also China would be great for US companies to invest in.
3. Who will succeed Chang kai Shek, Chang Ching Kuo, but it will be close. The KMT circle is split in supporting one or the other, but I think what tips the scales just like he did in the Central Plains war 1930 is the support of Manchurian strongman Zhang Tsuolin. Also Chang Wei Kuo is adopted son and also has Japanese blood(I am not surprsied this propoganda will be used against him). Chang Ching Kuo is also a leftist at heart(read his wiki entry, he studied in Moscow) so he probably would be more friendly with the USSR and against the Axis. An interesting thing would be the rise of Mao Tse Tung and Deng Xiaopeng for their support of Chang Ching Kuo. Chiang Wei Kuo on the other hand is right wing(with fascist leanings) and friendly with Germany. China under Chang Ching Kuo causes the split. and China leaving the Axis. China is focusing on trying to feed its people, restore order and economy and reform and stregnthen its insitutions and military ready for the next fight with Japan(who China feels is its main enemy, and the hate is personal and intense).
4. What is the situation in Japan? are they suffering also from famine and a economic depression? I think they would be, considering the Chinese napalmed their farm lands and they spent many millions during the war. However I think the Japanese while its freaking out from the atom bomb tests. Once the Chinese break off ties with the Axis, Japan will replace China there.
As soon as China leaves the Axis (and Japan likely joins it), US-Chinese alliance will likely be rekindled and deepened.
Leaving Axis vs Soviets, with China and USA alone.
The USA might be interested in nuclear research (even if they have their nukes then, China will still be ahead) as well as research on long-range missiles and any other domain where the Axis was ahead.
The USA will deeply dislike both the Axis and Soviet Union as they're all totalitarian, racist and colonialist nightmares who aim more or less for world domination and conquest.
In contrast, they'll remember that China had always only defended herself and never tried to build an empire or be the first superpower, and while China had bad friends she herself had a good record (for the standards of era at least). Even the napalming of Japan was self-defence against a country that tried to dominate China for decades before invading, raping Nankin etc.
And China never was an enemy/rival of the USA (while Germans, Soviets and Japanese were).
So, in PR terms, the USA would be pressured to ally with China + China would have technology and research to offer + juicy Chinese markets and resources + having a big and loyal Chinese ally makes the US more secure militarily and offers bases in Far East.
I can see the 20th century ending with China being as developed as the USA, and their tandem dominating the world (with Ireland, Indochina, Siam, Latin American countries... gravitating around), as Soviet Union, France, Reich (and its puppets), Italy, British Empire and Imperial Japan all collapse...
Leaving entire Europe (except Ireland, Switzerland and a few others) in the situation of OTL post-Soviet Eastern Europe, needing US and Chinese help to recover. While post-Axis Africa becomes a total mess...
Leaving Axis vs Soviets, with China and USA alone.
The USA might be interested in nuclear research (even if they have their nukes then, China will still be ahead) as well as research on long-range missiles and any other domain where the Axis was ahead.
The USA will deeply dislike both the Axis and Soviet Union as they're all totalitarian, racist and colonialist nightmares who aim more or less for world domination and conquest.
In contrast, they'll remember that China had always only defended herself and never tried to build an empire or be the first superpower, and while China had bad friends she herself had a good record (for the standards of era at least). Even the napalming of Japan was self-defence against a country that tried to dominate China for decades before invading, raping Nankin etc.
And China never was an enemy/rival of the USA (while Germans, Soviets and Japanese were).
So, in PR terms, the USA would be pressured to ally with China + China would have technology and research to offer + juicy Chinese markets and resources + having a big and loyal Chinese ally makes the US more secure militarily and offers bases in Far East.
I can see the 20th century ending with China being as developed as the USA, and their tandem dominating the world (with Ireland, Indochina, Siam, Latin American countries... gravitating around), as Soviet Union, France, Reich (and its puppets), Italy, British Empire and Imperial Japan all collapse...
Leaving entire Europe (except Ireland, Switzerland and a few others) in the situation of OTL post-Soviet Eastern Europe, needing US and Chinese help to recover. While post-Axis Africa becomes a total mess...
Yah agree with you, also it will take time for the USA to develop nukes I dont think they have a manhattan type project online, probably plans for it. and in OTL it took like what 4 years to get a nuke for the USA. with all the best scientists in the world, and lots and lots of resources. However with Chinese help this time will be cut to like 1-2 yearsor less. So by the time of the Sino German split, the USA will be desperate to get a nuke. to deter the Germans. However as said Chinese price for nuke tech...1. massive food aid(USA can deliver this). 2. Help in curing the crop diseases. 3. a Morgenthau style aid to China. 4. military alliance . 5. favorable trade relations. Also if the Japanese join the Axis when China steps out. the USA gets even more desperate, USA considers both the Japanese and Germans as military threats.
Also USSR probably gets a nuke a few years later. Probably from a combination of spies in the USA nuke project, from Trotsky France, and from Jewish nuke scientists who give nuke tech to USSR since its the main nemesis of Germany and the Axis who they hate. for the Shoah.
Is there any non-ASB timelines where post-colonial Africa isn’t a mess? Genuine question.
And the Chinese lobby in the USA is quite stronger than the Japanese lobby. and the Japanese are already under embargo also USA Japanese relations get worse because of 1. the anti crop diseases. 2. Japan joining the Axis if this happens. and 3. Japanese naval buildup which the USA finds to be threatening.
As for german leadership succession , Hess vs. Heydrich vs. Himmler ...now while all of them are very anti USSR. I wonder who is the more pragmatic, one, Hess is crazy, and would probabl invade the USSR in a heartbeat, heydrich , Himmler less so. Also the USSR by 1955 has a more superior and bit numerous tank force than the Germans, The Soviets are probably starting to field the T-54/55, RPG-2s for their troops and better command control situation than just like a decade ago(Soviets probably studied their past deficiences.). Also with Stalin dead who takes over, I think its Beria. Beria while a despicable shit head, is actually quite efficient (he headed the Soviet nuke program). less crazy than Stalin more pragmatic, Beria probalby wants closer relations with China and the USA and also mends relations with France also Beria's intelligence background as Chief of the NKVD, not surrpised Beria and Dai Li get along famously. Without all the things that made the Soviet leadership purge beria in OTL, in fact, Beria's policies probably jive with the sentiments of the Soviet leadeship since its faced with a nuke armed German threat who is baying for the destruction of the USSR.
Well there post-French Africa might (emphasis on the conditional) do somewhat fine, as France willingly decolonized, and France and ex-colonies remain partners.
Said ex-French colonies have good incentive to band together (both between different countries and between ethno-religious groups within countries), as Germans, Italians and British are all liable to recolonize them (to make up for lost colonies and for prestige and because they can't stand African independent countries and are just dicks all around...). And France faces the same threat.
All this unity and common existential threat will likely mean peace and development.
I think Germans consider a Commie France on their doorstep to be a a major threat. Expect WW3 to happen. even with all sides having nukes.
also i think Japan is in dire straights , the war in China was a disaster for the japanese. Defeat by the Chinese, the loss of Manchuria who they consider to be animals probalby hit Japanese ego hard, also with lots of dissatisfied Japanese veterans returning with high unemployment with economic depression, I think revolution is rife in the air in Japan. Strikes , outright street fights. governmental assasinations as tensions between gov. miltiary factions grow. Also German Chinese nuclear bomb probably kicked the Japanese in the nuts. They simply dont have the money to do a nuke program. Japanese probably get helped by entering the Axis but its still under embargo from the USA. However dependence on the USA is lessened by their control of resource rich Dutch East Indies, which the Japanese are probably experiencing a rising Chinese supported rebellion. and being brutally put down by the Japanese (which leads to more resentment anger and rebelion vs the Japanese). (I think it will be to the Chinese best interest to deny the East Indies as a reosurce hub for the Japanese, a big blow to Japan economically).