As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, 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 an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … 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 the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
