If they were truly unique, then you wouldn’t consider them American food either. They would just be their own set of dishes that is neither Chinese nor American but its own thing. I could respect that and even make an argument earlier that Chinese American, Chinese Peruvian, Chinese Korean, and so on could be lumped together as Chinese diasporic food that is neither “pure” Chinese nor food of their host countries. But you are not doing that. In comparison to Chinese food, it’s “these dishes are heavily divergent from Chinese food,” but in comparison to American food, it’s suddenly “uh aktually, these are American dishes despite having little in common with other American dishes.” Chinese American food might be different than “pure” Chinese food, but it’s still a helluva lot similar to that than “pure” American food. Why the double standard?