When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
