As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
