As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
