When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America 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 used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
