As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publicly share content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of hope in America that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if 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 Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of violence.
However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled the country due to harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “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.”
The professor observes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
