As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
