As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
