As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident 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,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
