When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start 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, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
