When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However 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 seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
