When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
