As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
