When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
