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Based on this-mattystereo.deviantart.com/art…

This world began to diverge from our own sometime in 2006, though the changes only really start to become noticeable by 2012.

A century has passed since America's disastrous messup in Vietnam, and the world has a new Commander-in-Chief. Having surpassed the economy of the U.S. in sheer size in 2020, and more recently in GDP per person as well in 2061, China has at last brought the Geopolitical situation of the globe back to what it was in the time of Zheng He. Chinese aircraft carriers patrol the seas, bestowing legitimacy on local rulers, having essentially monopolized cross-continental trade. In large parts of the world, the Chinese are increasingly careless in hiding the fact that in many ways 19th century colonialism has returned, this time solely from Beijing. Although several parts of the world have become more powerful- Russia, Turkey, India, and even Nigeria- the 21st Century has been an unequivocally Chinese century. North Korea was dropped as an ally, and, once it was certain that the south would cooperate, China supported South Korea's unification of the peninsula. The real turning point though, was the Taiwanese Reintegration of '29.

The 29th Politburo continues to run things from Beijing, no longer smog infested, and does a rather clean and efficient (sometimes brutally so) job of running things. Though still Communist in theory, state Capitalism has long been the practice. Maoist and Confucian thought are significantly intertwined and have become a new cultural theory of government, citizens' lives, and well, just about everything. Increasingly the 'Paramount Leaders' are venerated as Emperors. The shining cities of China are filled with high-speed rail and free wi-fi (even if the government isn't monitoring things 100% of the time, enough pages are fire-walled and most nations have their own separate Internets these days anyway), and are the envy of the world.

Surrounded on all sides by a China with the upper-hand, India is fairly nervous. A very tolerant and open society, though not quite as rich as China's, and still much more diverse (the increasingly balkanized states are emphasizing the fact that the country is a federation more and more), India is nonetheless every bit as chaotic as it was in 2014. Political parties (10 are currently in the Ruling coalition together) are evidence of this. Though Chinese economic and military might trumps it outright, India is still probably the premier cultural power, and Chinese efforts to make their restaurants/movies more popular than tikka and bollywood throughout Africa and the Middle East have not yet borne Fruit. In Pakistan at least, Indian films are outlawed.

The 21st century was in many ways, the decline of the West. While America is still a formidable economic giant ("number three's not so bad!") it has become increasingly dominated by Isolationist groups. The Republicans collapsed after a series of Party splits and fiascos in the 2020s and 30s, as it became clear that the vast majority of Americans did not want a new Cold War with China. The two-party system lives on though, with the Libertarians having become the new Right. In some respects, although there're a substantial minority of Americans who yearn for older days when the country was top dog, many Americans prefer what one Libertarian President called 'Our Gated Garden.' Living standards and income inequality have both gotten significantly better, and although this is no land of Oppurtunity, the U.S. of the 2060s is somewhat akin to the Scandinavia of the 2000s. Protectionist Capitalism and huge tariffs and even outright bans on Chinese goods have in some ways isolated the U.S. from International corporations and kept local businesses and manufactoring alive, although some in the West Coast (where three states- South California, North California, and Oregon) where Chinese imports are allowed have seen an even greater increase in wealth coupled with greater dependence on China. The U.S. was always too internally large to come into the Chinese orbit, and the absence of any major world war in this century has kept things that way. Canada and Brazil are likewise still important enough to be local powers (both countries' strength relative to the U.S. having increased- significantly so in Brazil's case) and the three now have an organization that has replaced NATO as the U.S.'s primary miltary alliance.

After the European Union ended in the 2020s, two Europes have formed. The UK is now divided between the Tories and UKIP, and has become something of China's 'lil buddy in Europe. Along with Germany, which has opened up to Chinese companies and now hosts several bits of the Chinese military, the UK forms one Chinese friendly Europe. The other, poorer, more militant, and more willing to openly engage in Anti-Chinese rhetoric is the grouping of countries which have formed 'The European Commonwealth' (EU take two). Mainly a four way alliance between France (far-left Socialist), Poland (far-right squeezed between hotstile Germany and Russia), Italy, and Spain. The fact that most of Europe has been unable to maitain its safety nets (or unwilling to as places like Romania have become more controlled by the elites) has resulted in a continent of lowering population with lowering oppurtunity. Many in Europe feel that they're the only ones in the world standying up to Chinese bullying.

The world has become richer, more populous, and in some ways a better place, but in others worse. Democracy is no longer on the global decline; where it remains it is strongly rooted, but the vast majority of states that were in the democratic-dictatorship grey area back in the 2000s have become solid autocracies. Some, like Angola, have very Chinese-like systems of governance and stability, whereas as others, like Russia, have their own family dynasty autocrats (not Putin's kids- they were all picked off by men in black suits at a young age). Most places have accepted varying levels of Chinese strong-arming or else avoid Beijing. While violence and wars have become less common and stability is on the rise, the Chinese have avoided America's intervention in Mesopotamia, leaving the space between Basra and Aleppo a giant smoldering ruin of local militias and batshit craziness- the rest of the world seems to have exported all of its violence into one stone-age place. The Internet is firewalled in most of the world, and indeed many countries have their own local webs, cut off from the world wide one. The UN continues to be inefficient, but now that's China's problem rather than the U.S.' (Indian demands at a seat on the Security Council have been ignored for quite some time). China and India have bases on Mars, and those nations plus Russia, Brazil, France, UK, Germany, Japan, and Korea have bases on the Moon.

Chineses culture increasingly replacing Westernization with Sinification just about everywhere. Globalization though, seems to be diminishing in its affect, even as Mandarin is increasingly more used across cultures than English. Revolutions have been put down, and since the 2010s the authority of governments and the elite has seemed entrenched from the outside (even if, on the inside, the Chinese pick and choose local rulers for lots of places).

Still, most strongly in India and Europe, but also to a lesser degree in the U.S. and even in Chinese dominated lands like Vietnam and Japan, movements to end Chinese dominance are quitely growing.

Description
Based on this-mattystereo.deviantart.com/art…

This world began to diverge from our own sometime in 2006, though the changes only really start to become noticeable by 2012.

A century has passed since America's disastrous messup in Vietnam, and the world has a new Commander-in-Chief. Having surpassed the economy of the U.S. in sheer size in 2020, and more recently in GDP per person as well in 2061, China has at last brought the Geopolitical situation of the globe back to what it was in the time of Zheng He. Chinese aircraft carriers patrol the seas, bestowing legitimacy on local rulers, having essentially monopolized cross-continental trade. In large parts of the world, the Chinese are increasingly careless in hiding the fact that in many ways 19th century colonialism has returned, this time solely from Beijing. Although several parts of the world have become more powerful- Russia, Turkey, India, and even Nigeria- the 21st Century has been an unequivocally Chinese century. North Korea was dropped as an ally, and, once it was certain that the south would cooperate, China supported South Korea's unification of the peninsula. The real turning point though, was the Taiwanese Reintegration of '29.

The 29th Politburo continues to run things from Beijing, no longer smog infested, and does a rather clean and efficient (sometimes brutally so) job of running things. Though still Communist in theory, state Capitalism has long been the practice. Maoist and Confucian thought are significantly intertwined and have become a new cultural theory of government, citizens' lives, and well, just about everything. Increasingly the 'Paramount Leaders' are venerated as Emperors. The shining cities of China are filled with high-speed rail and free wi-fi (even if the government isn't monitoring things 100% of the time, enough pages are fire-walled and most nations have their own separate Internets these days anyway), and are the envy of the world.

Surrounded on all sides by a China with the upper-hand, India is fairly nervous. A very tolerant and open society, though not quite as rich as China's, and still much more diverse (the increasingly balkanized states are emphasizing the fact that the country is a federation more and more), India is nonetheless every bit as chaotic as it was in 2014. Political parties (10 are currently in the Ruling coalition together) are evidence of this. Though Chinese economic and military might trumps it outright, India is still probably the premier cultural power, and Chinese efforts to make their restaurants/movies more popular than tikka and bollywood throughout Africa and the Middle East have not yet borne Fruit. In Pakistan at least, Indian films are outlawed.

The 21st century was in many ways, the decline of the West. While America is still a formidable economic giant ("number three's not so bad!") it has become increasingly dominated by Isolationist groups. The Republicans collapsed after a series of Party splits and fiascos in the 2020s and 30s, as it became clear that the vast majority of Americans did not want a new Cold War with China. The two-party system lives on though, with the Libertarians having become the new Right. In some respects, although there're a substantial minority of Americans who yearn for older days when the country was top dog, many Americans prefer what one Libertarian President called 'Our Gated Garden.' Living standards and income inequality have both gotten significantly better, and although this is no land of Oppurtunity, the U.S. of the 2060s is somewhat akin to the Scandinavia of the 2000s. Protectionist Capitalism and huge tariffs and even outright bans on Chinese goods have in some ways isolated the U.S. from International corporations and kept local businesses and manufactoring alive, although some in the West Coast (where three states- South California, North California, and Oregon) where Chinese imports are allowed have seen an even greater increase in wealth coupled with greater dependence on China. The U.S. was always too internally large to come into the Chinese orbit, and the absence of any major world war in this century has kept things that way. Canada and Brazil are likewise still important enough to be local powers (both countries' strength relative to the U.S. having increased- significantly so in Brazil's case) and the three now have an organization that has replaced NATO as the U.S.'s primary miltary alliance.

After the European Union ended in the 2020s, two Europes have formed. The UK is now divided between the Tories and UKIP, and has become something of China's 'lil buddy in Europe. Along with Germany, which has opened up to Chinese companies and now hosts several bits of the Chinese military, the UK forms one Chinese friendly Europe. The other, poorer, more militant, and more willing to openly engage in Anti-Chinese rhetoric is the grouping of countries which have formed 'The European Commonwealth' (EU take two). Mainly a four way alliance between France (far-left Socialist), Poland (far-right squeezed between hotstile Germany and Russia), Italy, and Spain. The fact that most of Europe has been unable to maitain its safety nets (or unwilling to as places like Romania have become more controlled by the elites) has resulted in a continent of lowering population with lowering oppurtunity. Many in Europe feel that they're the only ones in the world standying up to Chinese bullying.

The world has become richer, more populous, and in some ways a better place, but in others worse. Democracy is no longer on the global decline; where it remains it is strongly rooted, but the vast majority of states that were in the democratic-dictatorship grey area back in the 2000s have become solid autocracies. Some, like Angola, have very Chinese-like systems of governance and stability, whereas as others, like Russia, have their own family dynasty autocrats (not Putin's kids- they were all picked off by men in black suits at a young age). Most places have accepted varying levels of Chinese strong-arming or else avoid Beijing. While violence and wars have become less common and stability is on the rise, the Chinese have avoided America's intervention in Mesopotamia, leaving the space between Basra and Aleppo a giant smoldering ruin of local militias and batshit craziness- the rest of the world seems to have exported all of its violence into one stone-age place. The Internet is firewalled in most of the world, and indeed many countries have their own local webs, cut off from the world wide one. The UN continues to be inefficient, but now that's China's problem rather than the U.S.' (Indian demands at a seat on the Security Council have been ignored for quite some time). China and India have bases on Mars, and those nations plus Russia, Brazil, France, UK, Germany, Japan, and Korea have bases on the Moon.

Chineses culture increasingly replacing Westernization with Sinification just about everywhere. Globalization though, seems to be diminishing in its affect, even as Mandarin is increasingly more used across cultures than English. Revolutions have been put down, and since the 2010s the authority of governments and the elite has seemed entrenched from the outside (even if, on the inside, the Chinese pick and choose local rulers for lots of places).

Still, most strongly in India and Europe, but also to a lesser degree in the U.S. and even in Chinese dominated lands like Vietnam and Japan, movements to end Chinese dominance are quitely growing.