When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start 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 the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
