When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
