As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
