Transiting through China can be a crap shoot, delay wise, and not really great from a comfort perspective either.

If you can find availability to connect someplace else, that would be much preferred.

NRT/HKG/ICN are all good options using United miles. They all have reasonable connection times possible (1-2 hours) and much less risky.
**Added. These routes are all the same amount of miles as the China route, though may be a bit tougher to find availability.