When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind 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 that you see in China today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
