As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
