When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of 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 since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
