When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration 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 through the lens of China's historical period. Be it 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 delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
