When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
