When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
