When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined 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, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
