As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, 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 that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
