When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start 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 execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
