When 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 carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted 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. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
