I am the same way.  I think it is because our bodies adapt to the 'whatever it is' in Chinese food and when it is subjected to western ingredients it says, "Different. Must be bad.  Revolt, revolt, revolt!"

There is very little real western food in china. Just poorly cooked knock off attempts at cooking it by people who neither know or care what western cooking is. I have a Chinese friend who hates western restaurant food but loves the western food I cook. (it taste nothing like most of the garbage being served in "western restaurants" in most Chinese cities.

Kind of like Chinese food in America, if that is the only Chinese food you have ever tried you believe that is Chinese food when in fact it is not even close.    

I was SERIOUSLY ill two times. Once off food I cooked (Well, undercooked) and once off Subway Sandwiches. Loads of the back door trots off Chinese food though. 

The type of food has no bearing.  It is how it is prepared and the ingredients.

I eat out almost everyday and while I have only been deathly ill once from food poisoning I have never had proper craps in China unless I cook myself.

Western food in China is cooked the same way as Chinese food...this is why when I eat out I stick to Chinese food in busy and bigger restaurants.

I was never sick in China. I spit more Chinese food out that western food. Western food ain't that great in China either.

 I ate alot of a small sweet bread that had almonds on (don't know if can get every where) and yogart so maybe that helped.

I have only been very sick once in China, and that was after eating at McDonalds.

"my stomach capitulated faster than a French can raise a white flag."

Oh wow. I guess you deserve it.

the dude is right. in western restaurants outside of the major cities they do not sell enough. and the chinese mentality is to sell food that is spoiled. i'll give you an example. i walked into a shop and saw tuna fish sandwich on the menu. and before thinking "this is china" i was so happy to get an opportunity to chow down on a tuna fish that i neglected all my rules about eating in china. as i finished the sandwich i looked around the empty shop, and a thought occurred to me. how many tuna fish sandwiches do they sell a week/ month. and did i get a freshly openned canned or a can that was opened 2 weeks ago? (i got sick the next day)

there is no care put towards food storage and preparation in china when it comes to their own food. when it comes to western food they look at a photo and think "foreign food so simple .. grunt" and then try to poorly copy what they see in the photo. they do not take the time to search for a recipe, get the proper ingredients, get the proper utensils, and follow the instructions to the letter.  (that's why you have fruit salad with mayo)

I am not surprised so many foreigners get sick here from the food. You only have to look at the scandals here with milk powder, dog food and lead paint. However the biggest cause of illness is filthy cooks who smoke over your cooking. go toilet and never wash their hands and then come and cook your street food for you. You want to be safe - learn to cook for yourself. Your immune system will eventually identify and catch most common bugs from dirty food but some your system can never cope with. I see foreigners in the street laughing and eating what they think is pig meat off a stick and knowing they will pay for that severely. Also just if anyone is in any doubt street food is out-of-date back door sold meat or something worse, why do you think it is cheap.

My guess; they know how to cook Chinese food. They haven't actually got a clue how chicken breast (for example) is meant to be prepared and cooked and are undercooking/unevenly cooking it as a result. Therefore, your stomach issues.

More often on Chinese food. Had one bad experience with Dai cuisine. It's a great place, always loved the food, but one time decided to ordered something that looked like tofu, turned out to be some kind of been curd. It was discusting, good food poisoning, etc. Now I am a little bit cautious to choose things that resemble something I know or I simply cook on my own to be sure what I put into the dish.

I have give up the western-like food, as for the weird taste, prepared not in western way. 

So the sick time to time come only from chinese food.  Avoided myself for many kind of food and restaurant types, so i feel relatively safely.