As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers 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, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
