When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
