As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
