As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
