When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring the city's public library.
However in the year after the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. 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's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with China could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled 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, Donald Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
But after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to pressure from officials.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His pile on came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than the US's, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” he noted, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, authorities announced it would become an investor in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies deemed essential for the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is embarking on a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on approved news. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in China’s party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot 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 who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
