When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, 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 those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
