As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
