When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
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, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image 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 less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
