As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
