When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
