When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian 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 impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
