As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
