When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see 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 those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
