When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
