When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But since 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 recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
