When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide 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, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
