As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, 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 openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
