As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened 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 less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
