When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
