As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, 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 could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
