As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions 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 mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
