When the West creates soft power, they raise their OWN status high above everyone else (superior, white savior, most attractive, etc) while stepping on everyone else (often with plausible denial by hiding behind "academic studies").
When China creates (what it wrongly thinks is) soft power, they raise OTHER people's status.
You see this in preferential treatment of foreigners in daily life, at schools, in the media, hiring losers (editor at Global Times and even university deans), dating/sex, leniency on criminals, etc
China routinely teaches non-Asians that they are ABOVE the Chinese. What can they do except look down upon you?
This is one of the many reasons why China's current soft power is far below it's potential. It simply doesn't understand one of the most basic aspects of soft power - elevated status for yourself.
Remember, Africa has no hard power compared to China. So, these types of failures have nothing to do with hard power. More hard power alone will not solve this.