When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America 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 the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
