When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more 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 free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
