As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
