When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
