As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed 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 would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still 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 reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
