When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
