When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event 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 backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
