When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “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'd never publish openly content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However over the past year after the president was elected again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie 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 could assist the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it 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 delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without the same levels of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in the eye of a storm recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng resided in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. American judiciary have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. University leaders, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
