As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping 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 across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
