As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country 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 see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
