When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, 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 unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established 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 will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
