As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad