When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, 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, he stated. “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,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated 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 will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
