As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. 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. His family 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 America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot 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. An academic at an American college once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
