When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
