When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder 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, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
