When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's 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 stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a 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 appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
