When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
