When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
