As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge 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.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands 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 state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
