A rather ambivalent editorial in the People’s Daily:

Needless to say, Confucius is the most attractive symbol in Chinese
traditional culture. But when a rapidly growing China is trying to
build a new image and engage in greater interaction with the outside
world, can "Confucius" still represent today’s modern and thriving
China? This needs to be taken into serious consideration.

    I find that when such rhetorical questions are posed in Chinese, the implied answer – the presumed conclusion – is negative.  Thus, by asking the question, the editorial is, essentially, suggesting that "Confucius" cannot really "represent today’s modern and thriving China."  This is further implied in the piece’s final paragraph:

China is undergoing rapid development and experiencing a variety of new
emerging trends. New "Chinese symbols" such as: Yao Ming, Liu Xiang and
Zhang Ziyi, who all represent China’s new era, have gained world
recognition. However they will not become substitutes for Chinese
traditional symbols characterized by "Confucius", but help to enrich
traditional Chinese Culture as well as represent a flourishing modern
China. The Chinese should find a way to make their traditional cultural
symbols a better expression of modernity as well as a way of making
better use of their new cultural symbols. In fact, the reason why there
is so much global interest in China is that there is curiosity over how
China develops into a modern country and what new modern Chinese
cultural symbols will emerge.

   But the writer(s) seem to be saying that, while Confucius is not the only or best summarizing symbol of "modern China," he is still one of various cultural resources the feeds into a multifaceted image of "modern China."  This seems about right to me.  What Confucianism is, or can be now, is not what it was in Confucius’s own time, or even a hundred years ago.  China and the world have changed too much – socially, culturally, economically, politically – to allow for a static re-enactment of past practices.

    The big question, then, is: what, specifically, does Confucianism add to modern life?  The first part of the answer has to be a rejection of the patriarchy and authoritarianism of the past.  But I am one of those who believes that we can shed these old associations and still find some important insights in a modernized Confucianism.