As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon 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 more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs 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 shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
