When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
