As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US 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, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
