When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
