When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
