As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in China, find eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America 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 Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, 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 legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
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 will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
