When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. 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. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
