When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, 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 America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused 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 backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
