When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” 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 sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring 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 ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
