When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself 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 the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business 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 other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “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 notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
