When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics 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, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He resided in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs 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 hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
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. The deals have made some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into 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 China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
