When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, 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 top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant 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 such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of 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 appears to be pursuing correct policies 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 purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
