As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which 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, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
