When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie 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 become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
