When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever 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 institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
