As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US 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, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, 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 the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers 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, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America 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. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
