When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, 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 presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
