As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family 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 hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
