When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material where I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in that year. In 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into New York’s library system.
However over the past year since the president returned to office again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Her concerns reflect an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, perceive as disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between both figures of countries with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it appears as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in China half a century ago.”
Since the administration initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit absent equivalent degrees of violence.
However since the upheaval 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 numerous Chinese people.
‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.
His backlash came from online peers, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities 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, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of monitoring promoted by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed the US as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, that guide seems to have become dimmer”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear in decline.”
The government's purchase of stakes in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the line between government and business is frequently unclear.
On Monday, authorities stated it will take a shareholder in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors nervous that America is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
Yet, there remain major differences between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that would be impossible in the nation's party-dominated judiciary.
An analyst, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this article. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad
