When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of 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 seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
