As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears 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 sort of painful to accept 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 “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans 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 declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad