When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – 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 hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions 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 information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
