If the Europeans (mostly the British and French) actually sent real ambassadors to the Taiping Kingdom instead biased missionaries, it is very possible that the Taiping Rebellion could have succeeded in overthrowing and taking over the Qing Dynasty.
If the Europeans sided with instead of against the Taiping, they definitely would have won. And the Europeans sided with the Qing because they thought the Taiping were bad for business.
Apparently, the Taiping rulers were willing to change some of their unorthodox beliefs, but more importantly, they actually wanted to trade with the Europeans. However, missionaries are not the best diplomats, and the Taiping Christianity was *very* different from Protestantism or Catholicism.
Here is your Christian Chinese Empire. Christian with a huge asterisk.
In addendum:
The British government cared first and foremost about accessing the Chinese market. They didn't care who was in charge of China, be it Qing or Taiping. Those unofficial diplomatic contacts were the aforementioned biased missionaries, who were too hung up on religious doctrines and did not relay the important information, such as about trade.
Source: Prof Platt, expert on Taiping Rebellion
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