When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
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 China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
