As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
