I don't know if the comparison quite holds up, as one went for the southern expansion doctrine and the other for the northern.
That said, it's nice to see China holding Japan all the way to mid '43, as it often does in the current patch.
Iirc, that's due to a trigger set for them to start naval invasions late, so it could be improved but it's the best result we got so far (previously Japan would capitulate China by '40, far less than ideal needless to say).