As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America 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 his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
