As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. 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 the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
