When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
