When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels 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 rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
