As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai 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 freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, 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 “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
