When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
