As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
