As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
