As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced 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 such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
