When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him 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. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
