As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which 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 more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
