When Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not just considering which jokes to tell. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publicly share content in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a habit from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and exploring New York’s public library.
But over the past year after Donald Trump was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Her fears reflect a new climate in America which many Chinese, or people with experience in the country, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president expects total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He's called him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in the US that improved relations with the East could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it appears that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the mobilisation of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the early months under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
A former police officer, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in the US since 2019, after escaping China due to harassment from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“That event was a real shock. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in America – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” noted an academic, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “This is that you see in the East now as well,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in the US of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers such as him once turned to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears dimmer”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear in decline.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in the private sector.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or reversed numerous presidential measures, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “The United States might face the worst crisis of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on campus, in China, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, who are selected by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously confined to repressive regimes. One professor at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
