As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see 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, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
