When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country 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 used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, 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 many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
