When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president 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 brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
