When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publish openly content where I directly criticize authorities … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if 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 a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
However after the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, after the death of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a type of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with the East, where the line between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at an American college who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
