I know the Ming are where things get very repressive.  But Mongolian conquest was pretty much the reason the Ming were so totalitarian if I recall- they didn't want to get conquered by Nomads again.  Than they got conquered by nomads again (well, technically they had them take control since everyone was sick of the Ming, whatever).

The point of departure is more in limiting the influence of neo-confucianism somehow, so the market society the Song had isn't nipped in the bud.

I figured if neo-confucian influence was reduced it may cause the series of events that eventually lead to a industrial china, though saying industrial china does ignore that a Chinese Industrialization would look a hell of a lot different from Britain's.  And than things just get more different from there when you consider how different a Europe invaded by mongols would be or what of India or what of Chinese contact with the New Worlds and how different that can play out from Spanish conquest...  okay I can definitely see your point.  Hard enough to do alt history alone, imagine a dozen people with totally different skill levels and knowledge bases!

Probably could work better as a fantasy RP where a china-like culture (or hell, even some culture very different from anything on our world) that has a global hegemony over a diverse world I suppose, similar concept but much easier to work with?