When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed 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 mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of violence.
But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad