As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics 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, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
