When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's 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 unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
