When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
