When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
