As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes 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's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help 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.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, 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 painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
