As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly criticizing the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – many of whom were fired as a result of expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by America, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
