As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated what's termed 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. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
