As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god 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 dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of 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 “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
