When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
