When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
