When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if 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, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't 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, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
