As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis 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 talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
