As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting 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, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil 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 familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US 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, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
