When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
