When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s library system.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as disturbingly similar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in US companies has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
