When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, 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, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family 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 the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face 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 China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
