When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
