When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
