When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
