When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns reflect a new climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if 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, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears 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, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing 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 generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
