When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced 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 the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
