When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth 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 the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide 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, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
