As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
