When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage 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,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
