As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. 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 beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
