As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump 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 has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
