As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
