When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
