China is a pretty big country and their regional cuisine is very diverse.
I don’t think one can judge by what you get in America
A few years back, I listened to a radio interview here in the States of a couple of American guys who had opened an American style Chinese restaurant in Beijing because they couldn't otherwise get American-Chinese food there!
Nowadays, at least on the US west coast, it's hard to find a "traditional" American-Chinese restaurant, i.e., one that serves chop suey, egg foo young, sweet sour pork, egg rolls, crab rangoon (deep fried wonton skin stuffed with cream cheese!), and lots of other deep fried stuff (no steamed offerings whatsoever). Such a restaurant would always also offer hamburger and fries for the uninitiated. I'd wager that they do not serve the same dishes in Australian-Chinese restaurants.
The restaurants in the US used to be run by Cantonese speakers. Now, the newer Chinese restaurants here are run by Mandarin speakers who offer more Taiwanese and northern Chinese inspired dishes, like dumplings with thick chewy skin and thick chewy noodles (there seems to be a pattern). They are often not spicy or pungent enough to my Malaysian/Singaporean palate which finds greater affinity with Thai and Vietnamese food.
