As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse 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 that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “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 more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
