When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
