When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than 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 president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China 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 cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
