As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
