When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto the stage in the Big Apple, she's not only thinking about which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s library system.
But over the past year since the president was elected for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
The president has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers see US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of violence.
But since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of political atmosphere has emerged in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The most profound similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in America – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“In terms of going after those who disagree and monitoring public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in the East now as too,” she added, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The government's purchase of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for national security. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.
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 Pentagon policy that required they only report on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be impossible in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. Administrators, which are selected by the government, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university once vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
