As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
