As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
