As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
