When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
