As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, 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 organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy 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 should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, 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, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
