As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, 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 for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, 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, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept 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,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
