When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, 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 currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
