That’s a little more than soft power

It's soft power until they start using it.

This stopped being the yardstick for influence around WW1

And that was a mistake. Population and resources is key to a nation's power. It's a large reason why the US is so powerful. Per capita a lot of European countries have similar levels of wealth, but the US has nearly 350 million people, which is only slightly less than all the states in the EU combined. If the EU were more centralized it would be a single state with a power to rival the US. But, as a collection of 27 countries which only surrender some of their power to the EU government, it's not able to match the US.

I don’t know that they aspire to bring Hanification to me here in California.

Only on a limited basis. They definitely don't want you to talk about Taiwan and how Taiwan is an independent country. Right now, because the US is strong, you're free to talk about Taiwan all you like. But, as China gets stronger, they may require that their trade partners have local laws enforcing the one-China policy. They've already managed to push that onto the Olympics. And after they get that rule everywhere, what's next? Maybe laws forbidding people from using Winnie the Pooh to mock their leader?

The US deposed democratically elected leaders all over South America

That's not really about free speech. That's about who holds power in various countries.