As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
