As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, 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”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
