When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
