As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the turmoil of the early months under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, 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 take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
