When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
But in the year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since the administration unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of public monitoring also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. However, “The US isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. Last month, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see American colleges yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of suppression here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
