When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
