As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still 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 Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, 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.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
