As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
