When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
