As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the 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 the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously 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 these days than say anything bad
