When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation'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 countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, 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 … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
