As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
