As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would 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 Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“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,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
