As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide 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 sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
