As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired 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 espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him 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 ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
