As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family 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 the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
