When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign 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 is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
