As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing 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 shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous 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 the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
