As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, 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 in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
