As Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. Additionally, she weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she stated. And when 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 believe this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and exploring New York’s library system.
However in the year since the president returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s concerns mirror a new climate in the US which many Chinese, or those with experience in China, perceive as disturbingly familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader expects total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a temporary truce in economic tensions on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models was evident. Following years of optimism in America that improved relations with the East may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to rally the grassroots to sideline or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”
Since Trump initiated what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, many in China have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to America, albeit without the same levels of violence.
However after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP dissenter, ended up in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he once faced in his homeland. He resided in the US for several years, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge 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 – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s pile on originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has parallels with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, an associate professor at a US university. “This is observed in China now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a type of monitoring promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to America for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a god for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted parallels with China, where the line between government and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take an investor in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to national security. These moves have made certain stakeholders nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved news. US courts have blocked or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, an action that is unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “The United States could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang notes that although numerous scholars in the country were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “have no liberty of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions previously confined to repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He said: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
