When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal 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, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, 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.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
