As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal 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, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of 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 seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
