As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
