As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, 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 parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
