When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, 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 … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
