When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
