[quote=@Mihndar]
<Snipped quote by Vilageidiotx>

But they also wouldn't have been devastated during World War 2, so to some degree those would have canceled out. And it seems a bit dubious to me that China could have industrialized several times faster in order to match.
[/quote]

Eh, that's not as important as you would imagine. The countries that America tossed money at after WW2 caught up wildly quick. 

[quote=@duck55223]
You know, it's starting to seem a bit like China grew really powerful out of nowhere.
[/quote]

Sporum Precipice was a mess, and its left us a bunch of really peculiar shit. It does seem a bit unfair, but there aren't really any other legit options, since retconning the major powers would collapse Precipice's storylines and allowing people to make the same mistakes now would just make the cannon even more peculiar.

But, in China's defense, they have a better situation for industrialization. Their culture was always what got in the way, but their population and their ability to get at resources cheaply gives them a leg up. Japan has to ship most of their resources overseas and has severely limited real-estate, so industrialization ends up more expensive for them.