As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties 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 the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start 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 the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
