Not good enough -- the highlighted.
You can have two types of 'empire': physical and virtual.
The physical empire is what we commonly associates with the ancient Romans or the recently Soviets. But the virtual empire is what you spoke about in your first paragraph. Wanting to go to China and speak Chinese essentially confines the person to within China. You have to want to be Chinese wherever you are and that is the difference between the virtual American/Western empire of today versus what was in the past.
Ideas needs the human agency to survive and as the individual is the most atomic level of civilization, the person carries within ability to either destroy or grow an idea. Currently, the most attractive idea -- at least in the political realm -- is individualism of which underneath lies other ideas like self expression, freedom of speech, etc. When you have peoples that are denied these ideas for so long what do you think they are going to do when they encounters them ? They are going to compare what they know and experienced versus what others know and experienced. Internal conflicts are inevitable. Some will be recoiled at what they see within themselves and some will be attracted. Going back to when two Berlins existed. No one in West Berlin want to be like East Berlin while East Berliners want to be like West Berliners. Hence The Wall and the graves of those who dared to try to escape East Berlin.
If China want to build that virtual empire, she must try to convince people to adopt Chinese ideals and currently, no one knows what they are. It is not that people are denied information about China. Things like how safe are Chinese streets at night or how fast can a Chinese maglev train go are not enough of attractants. Those things can never be internalized. But what are always internalized is an '-ism'.
a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement.
Everyone is aware of American-ism and/or Western-ism, and like you pointed out, many risked lives and limbs to either go to the places of that 'ism' or tries to adopt it wherever they are, and for the latter, often with fatal consequences from the reigning governments. China being a homogeneous society, and is working hard to stay that way, is barrier to a goal of having a virtual Chinese empire. In that sense, China is a racist country and nation-state. She does not advocate anything of China-ism as universally attractive, and as long as she restricts what constitutes a 'Chinese' to be along racial attributes, there cannot be anything equivalent from China to American-ism or Western-ism. So in order to make China attractive, she has to make it easier for others to become Chinese in every ways, cultural and political.
What this means is that if there is anything resembling a Chinese 'empire' it will be at the state level, of which military might is the only instrument of influence.
