When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation 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 dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, 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 currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
