When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or weaken the elite … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Is Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. He has lived in the US for several years, having fled the country due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in China now as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
