As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
