As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
