When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
