As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US'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 promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
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 Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
