When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously seems recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on 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 demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
