You design your empire like this:
Name:South Sea Company
Trait:
Asian Fascism: To dispel the threat of China, they eventually become the monster they purged a few years ago. Dissent is not tolerated: There is no freedom of press, assembly, or speech, at least for the proles. The Military cum Police controls most aspects of citizens' lives. This increases approval rating since there is no dissent in the Company.
Trait:
Second-hand technicians: This was once the land of Copycat innovation: Never at the frontier of technology, but if someone makes something new, prepare to see a copy within months if not weeks. This will be no different in the year 2030. Provides a large bonus in technology, if they have a working example of it.
Trait:
Legend of the Tycoons: Southeast Asia was the home of monopolizing tycoons, including Ng Teng Fong, YC Wang, and most importantly, Li Ka-Shing. Their companies are of course obsolete today, but only because they become part of the state machinery. This is backed by the very notable increases in national income, though its detractors insists that its because of cut-throat business practice and oppression upon any kind of dissent.
(Optional Trait: This counts as both positive and negative):
Kiasu: What was the national pastime of Singapore becomes that of the Company. In essence, competing parts of the Company fears losing out so much that they are hyper-competitive at everything, even on trivial things that they have little use in. They won't get complacent, but somehow the parts they are falling further behind needs help first.
In fields that the Company is losing out in, the company will be more competitive. But if the company leads on something, they suffer a penalty as energy is diverted towards parts they are losing out more.The South Sea Company, officially, is an assemblage of around 30 (the number is always in flux) Southeast Asian states. When the Chinese officially declared the Anschluss of Taiwan and Hong Kong, this led to widespread rebellion, and soon a few more southeastern states got drawn into the war. The Chinese Wars, as its now called, was expected to be a curbstomp, but somehow they got bogged down in northern Vietnam and Guangdong. The stalemate was broken and the war decisively won when the Khanate rose on the other side. To cement that unlikely victory, the states got into a closer union, not unlike the EU.
The Territory of the Company, in today's terms, consists of Taiwan, Coastal Fukien, Most of Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, Coastal Guangxi, Hainan, Most of Indochina except Burma (this is still an active front against Chinese remnants), Philippines, Most of Indonesia, and further east to the Solomon Islands(this side, again, is a dormant front against Aussies). Between the Company and the Khanate is basically wasteland: The wars has infested the lands with monsters and walkers.
In practice, though, little has changed from before the Chinese Wars. Officially, each state, which can be as small as a district or as large as a country, has one vote: in practice, the three city-states of Singapore, Hong Kong, and to a lesser extent, Takau(which is the old name of Kaohsiung) dominates the Company. The other states acts as the periphery and centres of industry of the more premier states. Migration is highly restricted: the major states believed that a truly united South Sea Company will lead to another Imperialist China. Instead, each state is expected to create its own nation, even this objective do not always align with the aim.
By design or by chance, fascism, more in the vein of the Italian version, but with enough xenophobic elements, is freely adopted once again as the major ruling ideology. The role of capitalists in economy is risen to the very paramount position. Tradition, industry, and conservative are the main national values.