As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after 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 in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
