Holy cow, 3U has some through fares to Australia posted for not much more. I see US$1697++ as base fare, cannot get it to pull up anywhere so no idea exactly what the all in prices is, but YVR-CTU-SYD roundtrip for around US$2k once taxes are factored in would be my guess.
We might need a dedicated "west coast premium fares for 2nd (and 3rd) tier chinese airlines..."