When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy 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 a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now 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.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
