As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said 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 established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying 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 the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
