When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
