When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
