As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
