As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has 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.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting 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. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
