As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after 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, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable 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 environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences 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 reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
