When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
