When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, 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 more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
