As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
