When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures 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 acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
