As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing 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 regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder 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, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
