As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities 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 America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
