Especially after how badly China was treated by most western countries (and Japan) during the Qing dynasty.
Basically, beginning of the century, when Asian countries got 'freedom', all the political leaders who got power were educated in western philosophy. They read western books, spoke western languages as a sign of education and adopted competing western ideologies as the model of society. The old, native one was discarded because it was a memorial of defeat. And people accepted it. You can see that everywhere - Gandhi was a barrister who wore coat before he become a monk (and all his lieutenants, from Nehru to Ambedkar, wore suits), Mao wore western clothes. Korean, Japan - they are the best examples of it. Rich people had become rich by following foreigners, and when foreigners left them alone, these same rich westernized people became rulers. Since then there is a fascination with everything west. There are some poor people who are still clinging to the old system, if they can. But the middle class has almost no option if they want to get rich.
As I said, it is a very complicated topic in sociology and there is no way I can explain it, as much as I understood it, here. I am eventually planning to write a book, starting from a dedicated blog. Will update here when I do.
So for India I could understand that colonialism created a West-oriented culture, but couldn't see why so in China, which was never under a foreign power. Your point about the rulers and intelligentsia being westernized makes sense in this context.
Also, China's a big place, the developer putting up a replica of the Eiffel tower is doing so precisely to separate his development from all the other ones out there.