As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
