I just looked up some popular American Chinese foods.
Those are almost 100% different than what is considered Chinese food in my country (which is the netherlands). I do know some of the dishes (and some are good) but you can't order that in "Chinese" restaurants here. Chinese restaurants here serve Indonesian food, sometimes also Japanese food, and some made up local traditions usually involving lots of deep fried meat. (with a lot of sugar and MSG and some ginger to make it taste Chinese).
Foreigners are often (mostly pleasantly) surprised by the Dutch Chinese food. Except if it's a low quality place, there's a huge difference between places.
This was a fun read:
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/ypxjmg/china-doesnt-understand-the-concept-of-american-chinese-food