When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed 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 execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies 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 purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
