As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. 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”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
