As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself 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 disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of 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 after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
