As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
