As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year since the president was elected for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. 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 the US that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “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 developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
