As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, 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 defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
