When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration 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 on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
