When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
