As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
