As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
