When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
