When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked 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 could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still 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 required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
