When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has 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.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
