When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people 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 the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, 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, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection 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 acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with 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 less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
