When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition 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 startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
