When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into 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 knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
