When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
