As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities 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, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
