When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
