As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, 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, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse 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 can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
