As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
