As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“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, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous 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 including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
