As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels 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 US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump 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 approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
