When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
