When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, 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 nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
