When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
