As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
