When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
