As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
