As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound 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’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge 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 the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor 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 the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
