When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on 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 institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
