When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers 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 those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China 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 inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
