When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America 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, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed 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, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
