As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
