When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
