When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State 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 surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
