When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities 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 government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad