When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
