When Vickie Wang, an emerging comedic talent, steps onto the stage in New York, she's not just thinking about what humor to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she ventures there, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in that year. In 2025, she relocated to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” attending talks, demonstrations, and exploring the city's public library.
But in the year after the president returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, she notes. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while here I'm standing on shifting sands.”
Her concerns mirror an emerging political reality in America which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” stated Zhang Qianfan, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine established figures … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, many in China see American governance via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration 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 Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – what should only happen in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from online peers, instead of the government, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in the East today as well,” she added, stating that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.
The professor, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, seems to be declining.”
The Trump administration’s purchase of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government stated it will take an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies it considers essential for national security. These moves have made some investors nervous that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, multiple media outlets among others declined to agree to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of all time, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that while numerous scholars in the country were surprised to see American colleges yield to government demands regarding DEI policies and free speech on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. Administrators, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
