When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once 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 more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
