As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“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 a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
