When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
