As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit 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 emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
