As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also weighs which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and delving into New York’s public library.
But in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with China may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing an era of cultural revolution,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, 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 rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, having fled the country because of pressure from officials.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring bears parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, stating that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of shares in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of state intervention in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
