When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, takes the stage in the Big Apple, she is not only considering which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the government,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s public library.
However in the year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems as if America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing 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 in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of force.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration subsided, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the US, which variously also feels familiar to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in the eye of a storm recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in America for several years, after escaping the country because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I never imagined that something like this could happen in America – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from online peers, rather than the state, but such of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East today as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, since openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, seems to be in decline.”
The government's purchase of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in other companies deemed essential for national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad