When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes her platform in New York, she is not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country because of harassment from officials.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of suppression here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
