When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it 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 Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, 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 the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs 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 American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
