As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
