As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
