I think that the choice of projection works against China here, since it has more southerly exposed coastline. Also, much of its exposure isn't due-east. I bet

I think that the choice of projection works against China here, since it has more southerly exposed coastline. Also, much of its exposure isn't due-east. I bet a projection with less polar distortion and some sort of tangent-based algorithm would paint a more accurate picture. But all that said, there definitely are a lot of islands between China and the Pacific.