When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content where I openly disparage authorities … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands 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 has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
