As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
