When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing 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 acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
