As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about 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 makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors 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 declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
