As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
