As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
