As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
