When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
