When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears mirror a new political reality in the US which many Chinese, or people with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the growing nation to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to what happened in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on federal institutions at the start in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping China due to harassment from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after those who disagree and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is risky. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has declined across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in US companies has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned many of presidential measures, something that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
