When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
