When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … 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 “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
