As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’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 the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US 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, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
