When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
