When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
