When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with 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 am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
