Reading all these arguments over soft power really gives me a headache. The US and the West wouldn't have any soft power if they didn't have the advantage of occupying and oppressing most of the world for so long. Why do you think they want everyone to embrace Western values? Because they control what is considered valuable. If they control what is considered valuable in society, people are going to gravitate to wanting what is considered valuable. If people want what Westerners have, that would be considered soft power because people would have to do what Westerners want them to do in order to have it. That took generations of manipulation and coercion to get there.
The West created soft power solely so they can say you don't have it. That's control. It's like the West created the victim culture. Was it because they cared so for their fellow human beings that they wanted to help out? No it was so they can rank victims and then say only one at a time to be most efficient because mostly everyone will point the finger at the West as being their victimizer. You have to wait your turn. And guess what? After more than 50 years of the victim culture, the world is still waiting for ticket number one, the Jews, to finish... How convenient!
China has always had soft power before the West bothered to define it. The West only bothered to redefine it because they wanted to say China doesn't have any and China will have to do what the West says soft power is to have it. It's like the West trying to keep telling China what it has to do to be declared a superpower. The West says India has more soft power than China because the West has embraced yoga. Chinese food is the second most popular foreign cuisine in the US. That isn't soft power? How about Kung Fu movies? You think that's stupid stuff? How about if China didn't invent printing, the West would be all a bunch of illiterate idiots. Where's the West's appreciation for something so important to them? All you have is Western hatred of the Chinese. And you were a dummy enough to fall for it.