As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists 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 Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
