When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, 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 experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. 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”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
