When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit absent the same levels of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom lost their jobs for expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears 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 painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
