When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about what humor to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, 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, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur 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 social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
