When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city'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 says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump 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 on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
