Abbasid can't hide their age‑up: if you see the House of Wisdom you will know that your opponent's trying to age up.

When China goes to TC it's very, very costly for them overall to keep up with the food. You invest so much food into the villagers, you've got to go for an early farming transition which is very expensive. Meanwhile Abbasid throughout the time that they've got multiple TCs up, they pay a lot less food for their villagers, and also their farms are cheaper with the Economy Wing. They have a very easy time in that regard.

Against especially an Abbasid Dynasty with archers with composite bow, Nest of Bees are not believed in. They lost substantial damage, going from 8 to 6 per hit, and when you go Imperial age they just get destroyed by mangonels because of range difference.

You need crossbows for the Camel Riders, but composite bow archers will shred you if you don't start getting an armored component into the Chinese army.

Between Abbasid and Chinese, if the game goes late enough I favor Chinese because they have Hand Cannons and Yuan Dynasty. Right now we're peaking economy, which is Abbasid's domain; they have powerful eco and surge at this stage.