As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
