As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
