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I'd agree with you if the Chinese characters weren't so Asian-looking.
Well, in regards to Code Geass, Li and Tianzi don't look exceptionally different from the other characters, white or Japanese - Li's from roughly the same template as Orange-kun and Diethard, and Tianzi just, well, a cute little girl with odd eyebrows (I can't say anything for the rest of the Chinese Federation - I haven't watched the show in awhile, and the character page doesn't have anything about them).
As for other examples - well, it really looks like a Depending on the Artist thing. While a number of series that make Chinese people look "more Asian" than Japanese, but there's as many series - if not more - where the Chinese characters aren't much different looking than the Japanese ones, save for the fact that every girl seems to wear a qipao and odango. I have no idea if there's any racial tension behind it, since Japan's historically been all over the map when it came to race relations, particularly with the West and China.*
edited 10th Jan '12 11:27:02 AM by Sparkysharps
Are they all that Asian looking? Hong Gu
and Zhou Xianglin don't look all that Chinese to me, face structure wise. They are clearly stereotypically Chinese because of their clothes and hair. But if these count, I doubt you would mistake a Brittanian by a Japanese then.
As someone who's done a lot of art - portraits, particularly - that's actually easy to explain: Many of the physical differences* between white people and Asian people are really fucking hard to draw. For toon-shaded animated characters who have to be easy to draw consistently, it's easier and cheaper to go "fuck it" and just use the hair/eye-based Phenotype Stereotype.
edited 10th Jan '12 10:24:34 AM by Sparkysharps