When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
