When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
