As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. 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. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
