When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving 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 delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked 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 – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
