As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America 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 president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase 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 defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
