Eh, the only part of china I hate is the invisible wall. I have in games ignored china, as they take until turn 4ish to take the territory for your NOs back and at that point you earn enough anyway.
Yes, the easiest ways to fix Japan would be to take away 1 or 2 transports, place a factory in India or Austraila at the start of the game, grant the UK/US transports a bit more protection or distance so J1 cannot smash them, or any other number of things. But the true problem is no one can effect japan until turn 3 at the earliest and at that point it is too late. Also, the UK cannot afford to send much at all to the pacific without russia dying and africa being overrun. I feel the largest failure of the AA games is how much stronger than Russia Germany is. I hope in the new games Russia has a massive income convoy route to represent the massive quanities of materials the US sent her, and to represent the fact that Russia started pushing the Germans back before we even landed in France. Not saying I want the axis to always loose, I just want a Russia that can survive past turn 4 without allied help. Without that, the allies cannot afford to fight in the other theaters much. Strengthen Russia and Italy to balance it out.
Would anyone be willing to try out a game where both Italy and Russia make 10 more IPCs each in AA50 just to see if it makes for a more global game? I think it would, esp if the extra income was in other theaters.