When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
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 also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, 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. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US 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 democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
