As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, 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 reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
