When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it 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 without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
