As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
