When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has 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 mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
