As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
