When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
