When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging 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 has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat 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 tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated 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. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
