As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, takes the stage in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I'd never publicly share material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in that year. By 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” going to talks, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However in the year after Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas here I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
The president has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different governance models was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, though absent the same levels of force.
However since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels recognizable to numerous Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
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 a controversy recently, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who were fired as a result of making negative comments regarding him – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of espionage attempting to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing would occur in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance also has parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to America for ideals, in part because public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US isn't a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to national security. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
