When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on 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 the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
