When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
