As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content where I openly disparage the government … I think it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on 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 presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once vocal on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
