As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. 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 optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
