When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's 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. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump 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 in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired 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 was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, 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 somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
