As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models 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 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,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil 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 familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors 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, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
