As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
