As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between both figures of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, after escaping China because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders 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 reporting solely on approved information. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
