When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting 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 a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad