As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US 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 the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
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, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
