As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government 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. These moves have made some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
