As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing 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 to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur 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 such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government 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 in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
