When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
