As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
