As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not only considering which jokes to deliver. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she explained. And when she ventures there, she makes certain it isn't recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly content where I directly criticize the government … I think it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” attending talks, protests, and exploring 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 environment, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters are targeted. Institutions are attacked.
Trump has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with vastly different governance models became clear. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is shifting in China's path, rather than the other way around.
“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in China decades past.”
Ever since Trump initiated the so-called a government streamlining body, or Doge, on federal institutions early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the mobilisation of the youth to carry out the leader’s will, or purging organizations of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.
But after the turmoil of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has emerged in the US, which in different ways also feels recognizable to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The deepest parallel between the US today and the East is the crackdown on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in his homeland. He has lived in America for several years, having fled China due to pressure from the authorities.
Last fall, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he was accused of being a Chinese spy attempting to create division.
“This incident surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this could happen in the United States – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with the East.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as too,” she added, adding that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the legal expert, said that progressive thinkers like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, since openly discussing domestic politics in China is risky. However, “The US is no longer some kind of ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We once viewed America as the beacon of democratic governance, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in environmental protection and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” he noted, while “Western nations, exemplified by the United States, seems to be declining.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has prompted parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
On Monday, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is embarking on a fresh phase of government meddling in private industry.
There are still significant distinctions between the US under Trump and the East. In October, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a Pentagon policy that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled legal system.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “America might face its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “have no liberty refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once associated with repressive regimes. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship here: I genuinely feel more comfortable criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
