As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But 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 where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, 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 as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed 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 associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
