When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“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,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, 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 liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
