When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
