When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
