When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. 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 “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US 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 god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America 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 refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
