When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material where I directly criticize the government … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“America is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in America since 2019, having fled China because of pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
