As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
