As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat 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 “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China 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 of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
