When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. 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 strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, 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 the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
