As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives 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 that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation'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 the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
