When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if 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 learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “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 China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
