As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting 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. “This is observed in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “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 Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
