As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
