When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. 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 fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
