As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
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”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
