When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
