As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about what humor to deliver. She also weighs what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I believe it's a habit from China.”
Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost a decade, leaving 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 lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “In China, I knew where the line was, while here I find myself on shifting sands.”
Her fears reflect an emerging political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and China is the suppression on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America for several years, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of targeting those who disagree and monitoring public speech about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as well,” she added, adding that there were now fears in the US of pupils informing against teachers, a type of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's party-dominated legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in China, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are selected by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
