When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
