Moa,
Understood but is the idea to benefit from internal domestics, or accessing a destination? How much Australian-originated domestic traffic is there?
That is, is QF trying to benefit from domestic say Kunming - Xian, or from traffic going between Australia and Xian (necessarily going via an intermediate port)?
I'd assume the latter, in which case QF should be agnostic as to the intermediate port but rather should be concerned with the customer experience in getting the punter to their destination.
Personally if given a choice in getting from Oz to anywhere in the PRC, I'd suggest most Oz punters might have a preference for Cathay / Dragonair.