As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, 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 currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
