When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, 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 the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition 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, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
