As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
