When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs 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 once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder 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 certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
