When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. 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 hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism 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 was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
