As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
