As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help 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 the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of 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 public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
