When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
