As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
