When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge 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 such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
