When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
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 brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned 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, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
