When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, 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 sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
