As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“America is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities 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, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China today as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and China. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues declined to speak 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
