As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
