When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
