When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations 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, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
