As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
