When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking 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 state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
