When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … 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 federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it 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 the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America 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 China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
