When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US 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, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
