David Marash, a veteran journalist who just spend four months in Shantou, notices how American consumer culture has become common in China:

It is undeniable that mass consumption has boomed in China in the past thirty years, and that many of the most popular commodities are American.  But, even though Marash does not quite go so far, this does not add up to something like "Americanization."  Especially in the political sphere.

I say this because it might be tempting to read Marash's piece and assume that not only is China becoming more like America, but that the US might be able to derive some sort of "soft power" advantage from this.  There are obviously limitations on US soft power in China, and the world, these days.  The popularity of certain American commodities and cultural practices does not simply trump the unpopularity of US foreign policy, most notably in the Middle East.  Also, while Charter 08 is a significant thing, we should not expect a direct and smooth development of American style democracy in China any time soon.  The social and economic and political and cultural contexts are simply too different.  In the realm of political culture, for instance, the legacy of Legalism, especially in the minds of political elites unwilling to accept even modest expressions of opposition, makes political liberalization difficult. 

That said, I agree that the emergence of a modern mass consumption society in China has some parallels with the US.  And the analogy with the 1950s and 1960s might have some merit.  People do have more choice in more areas of their personal lives.  They may not be able to pursue political projects outside the rather narrowly defined Party restrictions, but more people have more social and cultural freedom than the Maoist period.  Where that will lead to, however, is what is unknown, and we should not hold up the American present as an image of China's future – that's been tried too many times in the past and has failed.

We might be able to say, however, that China's mass consumption present is certainly leading it further away from its Confucian past.  To the extent to which consumption takes on what Marx referred to as the "fetishism of commodities" – that our personal identities become expressions of the material things we surround ourselves with – the sadder a Confucian would be.  Confucianism embeds our identities (which can never be as autonomous and individualized as liberal theory would have it) in the performance of our familial and social duties.  Confucius himself takes a rather dim view on chasing after more and better material possessions:

The Master said: "Poor food and
water for dinner, a bent arm for a pillow – that is where joy resides. 
For me, wealth and renown without honor are nothing but drifting
clouds. (Analects, 7.16)

And renown and honor come from doing the right thing by your family and friends and community.

So, maybe we cannot say that China is Americanizing (it is experiencing more general processes of modernization that are not tied to any particular nation or national outcome) but we can say that it continues to de-Confucianize.