As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
