As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to sideline or weaken established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though 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 settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US for several years, having fled China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of public monitoring bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved information. American judiciary have halted or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
