When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed 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 perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
