As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “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 observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
