When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of 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. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
