As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “America isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
