As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
