When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
