When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
