When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
