As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
