As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, 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 painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, 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, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
