When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
