-He's a hedgehog because of the turning-into-a-ball game mechanic, however he was originally a rabbit and likely would still be if Sega was chinese
-His colours come from the Sega logo, which again may be changed if it was formed in China or a different Japan
-His first design was heavily inspired by Mickey Mouse's
-His attitude was inspired by the "get the job done" american slogan that helped elect Bill Clinton
-His red shoes are inspired Michael Jackson's boots
-He was originally going to be a rockstar with a german-looking girlfriend
-He was intentionally made to be a good-hearted rebel
-He was made to take on Nintendo's italian mascot
-He represents the heroic aspects of nature fighting against industrial pollution & tyranny personified by a scientist with a moustache(who was also a candidate for being the Sega's mascot)
-His transformation takes a lot from Dragon Ball's Super Saiyan, an anime already inspired by chinese mythology and that would be even more so if China created anime ITTL
-His mystical transformation is tied to the Chaos Emeralds(that may or may not be based on the Infinity Stones from Marvel), 7 holy objects that allow him to temporarily transcend. And I know, in-game it was originally just a invincibility power-up with a SSJ skin, but lorewise Super Sonic is essencially Sonic with the powers of a god, it gets even more mystical when you take into account that Sega made a arthurian Sonic game where turns out Sonic is King Arthur and he gets a medieval version of Super Sonic through the Excalibur.
-Tails was based on foxes, an animal that preys on both hedgehogs and rabbits, and the kitsune which has a chinese counterpart
-Knuckles is a echidna, an animal very similar to hedgehogs but not rabbits, and he himself takes some jamaican(?) inspiration while the echidna culture in the Sonic games is very native american inspired and Knuckles himself is very traditionalistic
-Both Metal Sonic and Shadow are darker representations of Sonic, one being a mechanical enslaved version of the hero made by industrialism while the other being a "realistic" version of Sonic, how he would be if he was created by real humans using fictional science with his idealism tainted by rage & grief after losing his best friend(also a german-looking girl) on a military invasion
- Chaos and the following eldricht final bosses of the Sonic series are very-kaiju like and take a bit from the cosmic horror genre, Chaos in particular being pretty much made to resemble a pre columbian god of death