As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed 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
