As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, 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.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
