As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America 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, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
