When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens 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, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, 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 reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
