As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection 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 stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
