When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
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 they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
