When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy 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 on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
