As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing 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 China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
