When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East 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.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels 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 CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
