As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” 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 surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, 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 reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
