As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the masses to sideline or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though without the same levels of violence.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
