From what I've seen in the US, a lot of Chinese medicine is actually FDA-approved as "beverages" -- supposedly they are safe to drink, but it's up to the user to believe whether or not there's any medicinal effect.

Placebo or not, I can say that 板蓝根 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isatis_tinctoria) has pretty consistently made me feel better when I had the flu or sore throat.