As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump 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 via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
