When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
