When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
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 difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
