When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed 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 camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
