When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe 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 many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
