When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, 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 DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
