As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
