When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period 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 to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
