When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge 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 the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “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 developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
