As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments 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 that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
