As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
