When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, 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 freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
