When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump 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. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, 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 it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
