As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
