As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, 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 rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. 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 previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
