As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China due to harassment from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have blocked or overturned many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
