When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
