As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, 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 difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
