Oh, no, I didn't want to say that Centralia is the US. Sorry, it was misleading.
I know fairly well the kowtow, center of the world (中国 - the first Kanji is "center/middle" after all), tribute trade etc. stuff.
The chart is just something that puts up the whole Empire thing very nicely. It also applies to history, and today to Russia and China.
Of course there are differences: Russia puts more emphasis on direct political influence then the US and China uses the economic route more.
But if you think that "America as Colonizer" or "Empire" is Chinese stuff, then you are not up to history. The term itself is older then when anyone in the US considered China as important (except for tea). It mostly is used for the post WWII area though.
But - again - the chart nicely shows a lot of the countries the world record holder in toppling democratically elected governments has influenced to do their bidding.