As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, 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, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
