As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions 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.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
