As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs 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 attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals 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 the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
