As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that the US 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. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “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 the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
