As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, 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 execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god 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 seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
